THE
ALCHEMIST
PAULO COELHO
TRANSLATED BY ALAN R. CLARKE
TEN YEARS ON
I REMEMBER RECEIVING A LETTER FROM THE AMERICAN publisher Harper
Collins that said that: “reading The Alchemist was like getting up at
dawn and seeing the sun rise while the rest of the world still slept.” I
went outside, looked up at the sky, and thought to myself: “So, the
book is going to be published in English!” At the time, I was
struggling to establish myself as a writer and to follow my path
despite all the voices telling me it was impossible.
And little by little, my dream was becoming reality. Ten, a
hundred, a thousand, a million copies sold in America. One day, a
Brazilian journalist phoned to say that President Clinton had been
photographed reading the book. Some time later, when I was in
Turkey, I opened the magazine Vanity Fair and there was Julia
Roberts declaring that she adored the book. Walking alone down a
street in Miami, I heard a girl telling her mother: “You must read
The Alchemist!”
The book has been translated into fifty-six languages, has sold
more than twenty million copies, and people are beginning to ask:
What’s the secret behind such a huge success?
The only honest response is: I don’t know. All I know is that, like
Santiago the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal
calling. What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path
that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something
that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However,
we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.
Why?
There are four obstacles. First: we are told from childhood
onward that everything we want to do is impossible. We grow up
with this idea, and as the years accumulate, so too do the layers of
prejudice, fear, and guilt. There comes a time when our personal
calling is so deeply buried in our soul as to be invisible. But it’s still
there.
If we have the courage to disinter dream, we are then faced by
the second obstacle: love. We know what we want to do, but are
afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in
order to pursue our dream. We do not realize that love is just a
further impetus, not something that will prevent us going forward.
We do not realize that those who genuinely wish us well want us to
be happy and are prepared to accompany us on that journey.
Once we have accepted that love is a stimulus, we come up
against the third obstacle: fear of the defeats we will meet on the
path. We who fight for our dream, suffer far more when it doesn’t
work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: “Oh, well, I
didn’t really want it anyway.” We do want it and know that we have
staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is
no easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this
journey. Then, we warriors of light must be prepared to have
patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is
conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how.
I ask myself: are defeats necessary?
Well, necessary or not, they happen. When we first begin
fighting for our dream, we have no experience and make many
mistakes. The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get
up eight times.
So, why is it so important to live our personal calling if we are
only going to suffer more than other people?
Because, once we have overcome the defeats—and we always
do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In
the silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves
worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good
fight. We start to live with enthusiasm and pleasure. Intense,
unexpected suffering passes more quickly than suffering that is
apparently bearable; the latter goes on for years and, without our
noticing, eats away at our soul, until, one day, we are no longer able
to free ourselves from the bitterness and it stays with us for the rest
of our lives.
Having disinterred our dream, having used the power of love to
nurture it and spent many years living with the scars, we suddenly
notice that what we always wanted is there, waiting for us, perhaps
the very next day. Then comes the fourth obstacle: the fear of
realizing the dream for which we fought all our lives.
Oscar Wilde said: “Each man kills the thing he loves.” And it’s
true. The mere possibility of getting what we want fills the soul of
the ordinary person with guilt. We look around at all those who
have failed to get what they want and feel that we do not deserve to
get what we want either. We forget about all the obstacles we
overcame, all the suffering we endured, all the things we had to give
up in order to get this far. I have known a lot of people who, when
their personal calling was within their grasp, went on to commit a
series of stupid mistakes and never reached their goal—when it was
only a step away.
This is the most dangerous of the obstacles because it has a kind
of saintly aura about it: renouncing joy and conquest. But if you
believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then
you become an instrument of God, you help the Soul of the World,
and you understand why you are here.
Paulo Coelho
Rio de Janeiro
November 2002
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
PROLOGUE
Translated by Clifford E. Landers
THE ALCHEMIST PICKED UP A BOOK THAT SOMEONE IN THE caravan had
brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about
Narcissus.
The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt
daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so
fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and
drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was
called the narcissus.
But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.
He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest
appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water,
transformed into a lake of salty tears.
“Why do you weep?” the goddesses asked.
“I weep for Narcissus,” the lake replied.
“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “for
though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could
contemplate his beauty close at hand.”
“But…was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.
“Who better than you to know that?” the goddesses said in
wonder. “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to
contemplate himself!”
The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:
“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was
beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I
could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”
“What a lovely story,” the alchemist thought.
PART ONE
THE BOY’S NAME WAS SANTIAGO. DUSK WAS FALLING AS the boy arrived
with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long
ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the
sacristy had once stood.
He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the
sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks
across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night.
There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed
during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day
searching for it.
He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book
he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he
would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and
made more comfortable pillows.
It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see
the stars through the half-destroyed roof.
I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same
dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened
before it ended.
He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep
that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his
animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious energy
bound his life to that of the sheep, with whom he had spent the past
two years, leading them through the countryside in search of food
and water. “They are so used to me that they know my schedule,” he
muttered. Thinking about that for a moment, he realized that it
could be the other way around: that it was he who had become
accustomed to their schedule.
But there were certain of them who took a bit longer to awaken.
The boy prodded them, one by one, with his crook, calling each by
name. He had always believed that the sheep were able to
understand what he said. So there were times when he read them
parts of his books that had made an impression on him, or when he
would tell them of the loneliness or the happiness of a shepherd in
the fields. Sometimes he would comment to them on the things he
had seen in the villages they passed.
But for the past few days he had spoken to them about only one
thing: the girl, the daughter of a merchant who lived in the village
they would reach in about four days. He had been to the village only
once, the year before. The merchant was the proprietor of a dry
goods shop, and he always demanded that the sheep be sheared in
his presence, so that he would not be cheated. A friend had told the
boy about the shop, and he had taken his sheep there.
“I NEED TO SELL SOME WOOL,” THE BOY TOLD THE merchant.
The shop was busy, and the man asked the shepherd to wait
until the afternoon. So the boy sat on the steps of the shop and took
a book from his bag.
“I didn’t know shepherds knew how to read,” said a girl’s voice
behind him.
The girl was typical of the region of Andalusia, with flowing
black hair, and eyes that vaguely recalled the Moorish conquerors.
“Well, usually I learn more from my sheep than from books,” he
answered. During the two hours that they talked, she told him she
was the merchant’s daughter, and spoke of life in the village, where
each day was like all the others. The shepherd told her of the
Andalusian countryside, and related the news from the other towns
where he had stopped. It was a pleasant change from talking to his
sheep.
“How did you learn to read?” the girl asked at one point.
“Like everybody learns,” he said. “In school.”
“Well, if you know how to read, why are you just a shepherd?”
The boy mumbled an answer that allowed him to avoid
responding to her question. He was sure the girl would never
understand. He went on telling stories about his travels, and her
bright, Moorish eyes went wide with fear and surprise. As the time
passed, the boy found himself wishing that the day would never
end, that her father would stay busy and keep him waiting for three
days. He recognized that he was feeling something he had never
experienced before: the desire to live in one place forever. With the
girl with the raven hair, his days would never be the same again.
But finally the merchant appeared, and asked the boy to shear
four sheep. He paid for the wool and asked the shepherd to come
back the following year.
AND NOW IT WAS ONLY FOUR DAYS BEFORE HE WOULD BE back in that same
village. He was excited, and at the same time uneasy: maybe the girl
had already forgotten him. Lots of shepherds passed through,
selling their wool.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said to his sheep. “I know other girls in
other places.”
But in his heart he knew that it did matter. And he knew that
shepherds, like seamen and like traveling salesmen, always found a
town where there was someone who could make them forget the
joys of carefree wandering.
The day was dawning, and the shepherd urged his sheep in the
direction of the sun. They never have to make any decisions, he
thought. Maybe that’s why they always stay close to me.
The only things that concerned the sheep were food and water.
As long as the boy knew how to find the best pastures in Andalusia,
they would be his friends. Yes, their days were all the same, with the
seemingly endless hours between sunrise and dusk; and they had
never read a book in their young lives, and didn’t understand when
the boy told them about the sights of the cities. They were content
with just food and water, and, in exchange, they generously gave of
their wool, their company, and—once in a while—their meat.
If I became a monster today, and decided to kill them, one by
one, they would become aware only after most of the flock had been
slaughtered, thought the boy. They trust me, and they’ve forgotten
how to rely on their own instincts, because I lead them to
nourishment.
The boy was surprised at his thoughts. Maybe the church, with
the sycamore growing from within, had been haunted. It had caused
him to have the same dream for a second time, and it was causing
him to feel anger toward his faithful companions. He drank a bit
from the wine that remained from his dinner of the night before,
and he gathered his jacket closer to his body. He knew that a few
hours from now, with the sun at its zenith, the heat would be so
great that he would not be able to lead his flock across the fields. It
was the time of day when all of Spain slept during the summer. The
heat lasted until nightfall, and all that time he had to carry his
jacket. But when he thought to complain about the burden of its
weight, he remembered that, because he had the jacket, he had
withstood the cold of the dawn.
We have to be prepared for change, he thought, and he was
grateful for the jacket’s weight and warmth.
The jacket had a purpose, and so did the boy. His purpose in life
was to travel, and, after two years of walking the Andalusian terrain,
he knew all the cities of the region. He was planning, on this visit, to
explain to the girl how it was that a simple shepherd knew how to
read. That he had attended a seminary until he was sixteen. His
parents had wanted him to become a priest, and thereby a source of
pride for a simple farm family. They worked hard just to have food
and water, like the sheep. He had studied Latin, Spanish, and
theology. But ever since he had been a child, he had wanted to know
the world, and this was much more important to him than knowing
God and learning about man’s sins. One afternoon, on a visit to his
family, he had summoned up the courage to tell his father that he
didn’t want to become a priest. That he wanted to travel.
“PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD HAVE PASSED through this village,
son,” said his father. “They come in search of new things, but when
they leave they are basically the same people they were when they
arrived. They climb the mountain to see the castle, and they wind up
thinking that the past was better than what we have now. They have
blond hair, or dark skin, but basically they’re the same as the people
who live right here.”
“But I’d like to see the castles in the towns where they live,” the
boy explained.
“Those people, when they see our land, say that they would like
to live here forever,” his father continued.
“Well, I’d like to see their land, and see how they live,” said his
son.
“The people who come here have a lot of money to spend, so
they can afford to travel,” his father said. “Amongst us, the only ones
who travel are the shepherds.”
“Well, then I’ll be a shepherd!”
His father said no more. The next day, he gave his son a pouch
that held three ancient Spanish gold coins.
“I found these one day in the fields. I wanted them to be a part of
your inheritance. But use them to buy your flock. Take to the fields,
and someday you’ll learn that our countryside is the best, and our
women are the most beautiful.”
And he gave the boy his blessing. The boy could see in his
father’s gaze a desire to be able, himself, to travel the world—a
desire that was still alive, despite his father’s having had to bury it,
over dozens of years, under the burden of struggling for water to
drink, food to eat, and the same place to sleep every night of his life.
THE HORIZON WAS TINGED WITH RED, AND SUDDENLY THE sun appeared.
The boy thought back to that conversation with his father, and felt
happy; he had already seen many castles and met many women (but
none the equal of the one who awaited him several days hence). He
owned a jacket, a book that he could trade for another, and a flock of
sheep. But, most important, he was able every day to live out his
dream. If he were to tire of the Andalusian fields, he could sell his
sheep and go to sea. By the time he had had enough of the sea, he
would already have known other cities, other women, and other
chances to be happy. I couldn’t have found God in the seminary, he
thought, as he looked at the sunrise.
Whenever he could, he sought out a new road to travel. He had
never been to that ruined church before, in spite of having traveled
through those parts many times. The world was huge and
inexhaustible; he had only to allow his sheep to set the route for a
while, and he would discover other interesting things. The problem
is that they don’t even realize that they’re walking a new road every
day. They don’t see that the fields are new and the seasons change.
All they think about is food and water.
Maybe we’re all that way, the boy mused. Even me—I haven’t
thought of other women since I met the merchant’s daughter.
Looking at the sun, he calculated that he would reach Tarifa before
midday. There, he could exchange his book for a thicker one, fill his
wine bottle, shave, and have a haircut; he had to prepare himself for
his meeting with the girl, and he didn’t want to think about the
possibility that some other shepherd, with a larger flock of sheep,
had arrived there before him and asked for her hand.
It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life
interesting, he thought, as he looked again at the position of the sun,
and hurried his pace. He had suddenly remembered that, in Tarifa,
there was an old woman who interpreted dreams.
THE OLD WOMAN LED THE BOY TO A ROOM AT THE BACK of her house; it was
separated from her living room by a curtain of colored beads. The
room’s furnishings consisted of a table, an image of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus, and two chairs.
The woman sat down, and told him to be seated as well. Then
she took both of his hands in hers, and began quietly to pray.
It sounded like a Gypsy prayer. The boy had already had
experience on the road with Gypsies; they also traveled, but they
had no flocks of sheep. People said that Gypsies spent their lives
tricking others. It was also said that they had a pact with the devil,
and that they kidnapped children and, taking them away to their
mysterious camps, made them their slaves. As a child, the boy had
always been frightened to death that he would be captured by
Gypsies, and this childhood fear returned when the old woman took
his hands in hers.
But she has the Sacred Heart of Jesus there, he thought, trying to
reassure himself. He didn’t want his hand to begin trembling,
showing the old woman that he was fearful. He recited an Our
Father silently.
“Very interesting,” said the woman, never taking her eyes from
the boy’s hands, and then she fell silent.
The boy was becoming nervous. His hands began to tremble, and
the woman sensed it. He quickly pulled his hands away.
“I didn’t come here to have you read my palm,” he said, already
regretting having come. He thought for a moment that it would be
better to pay her fee and leave without learning a thing, that he was
giving too much importance to his recurrent dream.
“You came so that you could learn about your dreams,” said the
old woman. “And dreams are the language of God. When he speaks
in our language, I can interpret what he has said. But if he speaks in
the language of the soul, it is only you who can understand. But,
whichever it is, I’m going to charge you for the consultation.”
Another trick, the boy thought. But he decided to take a chance.
A shepherd always takes his chances with wolves and with drought,
and that’s what makes a shepherd’s life exciting.
“I have had the same dream twice,” he said. “I dreamed that I
was in a field with my sheep, when a child appeared and began to
play with the animals. I don’t like people to do that, because the
sheep are afraid of strangers. But children always seem to be able to
play with them without frightening them. I don’t know why. I don’t
know how animals know the age of human beings.”
“Tell me more about your dream,” said the woman. “I have to get
back to my cooking, and, since you don’t have much money, I can’t
give you a lot of time.”
“The child went on playing with my sheep for quite a while,”
continued the boy, a bit upset. “And suddenly, the child took me by
both hands and transported me to the Egyptian pyramids.”
He paused for a moment to see if the woman knew what the
Egyptian pyramids were. But she said nothing.
“Then, at the Egyptian pyramids,”—he said the last three words
slowly, so that the old woman would understand—“the child said to
me, ‘If you come here, you will find a hidden treasure.’ And, just as
she was about to show me the exact location, I woke up. Both
times.”
The woman was silent for some time. Then she again took his
hands and studied them carefully.
“I’m not going to charge you anything now,” she said. “But I want
one-tenth of the treasure, if you find it.”
The boy laughed—out of happiness. He was going to be able to
save the little money he had because of a dream about hidden
treasure!
“Well, interpret the dream,” he said.
“First, swear to me. Swear that you will give me one-tenth of
your treasure in exchange for what I am going to tell you.”
The shepherd swore that he would. The old woman asked him to
swear again while looking at the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
“It’s a dream in the language of the world,” she said. “I can
interpret it, but the interpretation is very difficult. That’s why I feel
that I deserve a part of what you find.
“And this is my interpretation: you must go to the Pyramids in
Egypt. I have never heard of them, but, if it was a child who showed
them to you, they exist. There you will find a treasure that will make
you a rich man.”
The boy was surprised, and then irritated. He didn’t need to seek
out the old woman for this! But then he remembered that he wasn’t
going to have to pay anything.
“I didn’t need to waste my time just for this,” he said.
“I told you that your dream was a difficult one. It’s the simple
things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are
able to understand them. And since I am not wise, I have had to
learn other arts, such as the reading of palms.”
“Well, how am I going to get to Egypt?”
“I only interpret dreams. I don’t know how to turn them into
reality. That’s why I have to live off what my daughters provide me
with.”
“And what if I never get to Egypt?”
“Then I don’t get paid. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
And the woman told the boy to leave, saying she had already
wasted too much time with him.
So the boy was disappointed; he decided that he would never
again believe in dreams. He remembered that he had a number of
things he had to take care of: he went to the market for something
to eat, he traded his book for one that was thicker, and he found a
bench in the plaza where he could sample the new wine he had
bought. The day was hot, and the wine was refreshing. The sheep
were at the gates of the city, in a stable that belonged to a friend.
The boy knew a lot of people in the city. That was what made
traveling appeal to him—he always made new friends, and he didn’t
need to spend all of his time with them. When someone sees the
same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary,
they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they
want the person to change. If someone isn’t what others want them
to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea
of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or
her own.
He decided to wait until the sun had sunk a bit lower in the sky
before following his flock back through the fields. Three days from
now, he would be with the merchant’s daughter.
He started to read the book he had bought. On the very first page
it described a burial ceremony. And the names of the people
involved were very difficult to pronounce. If he ever wrote a book,
he thought, he would present one person at a time, so that the
reader wouldn’t have to worry about memorizing a lot of names.
When he was finally able to concentrate on what he was reading,
he liked the book better; the burial was on a snowy day, and he
welcomed the feeling of being cold. As he read on, an old man sat
down at his side and tried to strike up a conversation.
“What are they doing?” the old man asked, pointing at the people
in the plaza.
“Working,” the boy answered dryly, making it look as if he
wanted to concentrate on his reading.
Actually, he was thinking about shearing his sheep in front of the
merchant’s daughter, so that she could see that he was someone
who was capable of doing difficult things. He had already imagined
the scene many times; every time, the girl became fascinated when
he explained that the sheep had to be sheared from back to front. He
also tried to remember some good stories to relate as he sheared
the sheep. Most of them he had read in books, but he would tell
them as if they were from his personal experience. She would never
know the difference, because she didn’t know how to read.
Meanwhile, the old man persisted in his attempt to strike up a
conversation. He said that he was tired and thirsty, and asked if he
might have a sip of the boy’s wine. The boy offered his bottle,
hoping that the old man would leave him alone.
But the old man wanted to talk, and he asked the boy what book
he was reading. The boy was tempted to be rude, and move to
another bench, but his father had taught him to be respectful of the
elderly. So he held out the book to the man—for two reasons: first,
that he, himself, wasn’t sure how to pronounce the title; and second,
that if the old man didn’t know how to read, he would probably feel
ashamed and decide of his own accord to change benches.
“Hmm…” said the old man, looking at all sides of the book, as if it
were some strange object. “This is an important book, but it’s really
irritating.”
The boy was shocked. The old man knew how to read, and had
already read the book. And if the book was irritating, as the old man
had said, the boy still had time to change it for another.
“It’s a book that says the same thing almost all the other books in
the world say,” continued the old man. “It describes people’s
inability to choose their own Personal Legends. And it ends up
saying that everyone believes the world’s greatest lie.”
“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked, completely
surprised.
“It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of
what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate.
That’s the world’s greatest lie.”
“That’s never happened to me,” the boy said. “They wanted me
to be a priest, but I decided to become a shepherd.”
“Much better,” said the old man. “Because you really like to
travel.”
“He knew what I was thinking,” the boy said to himself. The old
man, meanwhile, was leafing through the book, without seeming to
want to return it at all. The boy noticed that the man’s clothing was
strange. He looked like an Arab, which was not unusual in those
parts. Africa was only a few hours from Tarifa; one had only to cross
the narrow straits by boat. Arabs often appeared in the city,
shopping and chanting their strange prayers several times a day.
“Where are you from?” the boy asked.
“From many places.”
“No one can be from many places,” the boy said. “I’m a shepherd,
and I have been to many places, but I come from only one place—
from a city near an ancient castle. That’s where I was born.”
“Well then, we could say that I was born in Salem.”
The boy didn’t know where Salem was, but he didn’t want to ask,
fearing that he would appear ignorant. He looked at the people in
the plaza for a while; they were coming and going, and all of them
seemed to be very busy.
“So, what is Salem like?” he asked, trying to get some sort of clue.
“It’s like it always has been.”
No clue yet. But he knew that Salem wasn’t in Andalusia. If it
were, he would already have heard of it.
“And what do you do in Salem?” he insisted.
“What do I do in Salem?” The old man laughed. “Well, I’m the
king of Salem!”
People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it’s better
to be with the sheep, who don’t say anything. And better still to be
alone with one’s books. They tell their incredible stories at the time
when you want to hear them. But when you’re talking to people,
they say some things that are so strange that you don’t know how to
continue the conversation.
“My name is Melchizedek,” said the old man. “How many sheep
do you have?”
“Enough,” said the boy. He could see that the old man wanted to
know more about his life.
“Well, then, we’ve got a problem. I can’t help you if you feel
you’ve got enough sheep.”
The boy was getting irritated. He wasn’t asking for help. It was
the old man who had asked for a drink of his wine, and had started
the conversation.
“Give me my book,” the boy said. “I have to go and gather my
sheep and get going.”
“Give me one-tenth of your sheep,” said the old man, “and I’ll tell
you how to find the hidden treasure.”
The boy remembered his dream, and suddenly everything was
clear to him. The old woman hadn’t charged him anything, but the
old man—maybe he was her husband—was going to find a way to
get much more money in exchange for information about something
that didn’t even exist. The old man was probably a Gypsy, too.
But before the boy could say anything, the old man leaned over,
picked up a stick, and began to write in the sand of the plaza.
Something bright reflected from his chest with such intensity that
the boy was momentarily blinded. With a movement that was too
quick for someone his age, the man covered whatever it was with
his cape. When his vision returned to normal, the boy was able to
read what the old man had written in the sand.
There, in the sand of the plaza of that small city, the boy read the
names of his father and his mother and the name of the seminary he
had attended. He read the name of the merchant’s daughter, which
he hadn’t even known, and he read things he had never told anyone.
“I’M THE KING OF SALEM,” THE OLD MAN HAD SAID.
“Why would a king be talking with a shepherd?” the boy asked,
awed and embarrassed.
“For several reasons. But let’s say that the most important is that
you have succeeded in discovering your Personal Legend.”
The boy didn’t know what a person’s “Personal Legend” was.
“It’s what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone,
when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is.
“At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is
possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything
they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time
passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be
impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend.”
None of what the old man was saying made much sense to the
boy. But he wanted to know what the “mysterious force” was; the
merchant’s daughter would be impressed when he told her about
that!
“It’s a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you
how to realize your Personal Legend. It prepares your spirit and
your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever
you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want
something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the
universe. It’s your mission on earth.”
“Even when all you want to do is travel? Or marry the daughter
of a textile merchant?”
“Yes, or even search for treasure. The Soul of the World is
nourished by people’s happiness. And also by unhappiness, envy,
and jealousy. To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only
real obligation. All things are one.
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in
helping you to achieve it.”
They were both silent for a time, observing the plaza and the
townspeople. It was the old man who spoke first.
“Why do you tend a flock of sheep?”
“Because I like to travel.”
The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at
one corner of the plaza. “When he was a child, that man wanted to
travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some
money aside. When he’s an old man, he’s going to spend a month in
Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in
their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
“He should have decided to become a shepherd,” the boy said.
“Well, he thought about that,” the old man said. “But bakers are
more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while
shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their
children marry bakers than shepherds.”
The boy felt a pang in his heart, thinking about the merchant’s
daughter. There was surely a baker in her town.
The old man continued, “In the long run, what people think
about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them
than their own Personal Legends.”
The old man leafed through the book, and fell to reading a page
he came to. The boy waited, and then interrupted the old man just
as he himself had been interrupted. “Why are you telling me all
this?”
“Because you are trying to realize your Personal Legend. And
you are at the point where you’re about to give it all up.”
“And that’s when you always appear on the scene?”
“Not always in this way, but I always appear in one form or
another. Sometimes I appear in the form of a solution, or a good
idea. At other times, at a crucial moment, I make it easier for things
to happen. There are other things I do, too, but most of the time
people don’t realize I’ve done them.”
The old man related that, the week before, he had been forced to
appear before a miner, and had taken the form of a stone. The miner
had abandoned everything to go mining for emeralds. For five years
he had been working a certain river, and had examined hundreds of
thousands of stones looking for an emerald. The miner was about to
give it all up, right at the point when, if he were to examine just one
more stone—just one more—he would find his emerald. Since the
miner had sacrificed everything to his Personal Legend, the old man
decided to become involved. He transformed himself into a stone
that rolled up to the miner’s foot. The miner, with all the anger and
frustration of his five fruitless years, picked up the stone and threw
it aside. But he had thrown it with such force that it broke the stone
it fell upon, and there, embedded in the broken stone, was the most
beautiful emerald in the world.
“People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being,”
said the old man, with a certain bitterness. “Maybe that’s why they
give up on it so early, too. But that’s the way it is.”
The boy reminded the old man that he had said something about
hidden treasure.
“Treasure is uncovered by the force of flowing water, and it is
buried by the same currents,” said the old man. “If you want to learn
about your own treasure, you will have to give me one-tenth of your
flock.”
“What about one-tenth of my treasure?”
The old man looked disappointed. “If you start out by promising
what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work
toward getting it.”
The boy told him that he had already promised to give one-tenth
of his treasure to the Gypsy.
“Gypsies are experts at getting people to do that,” sighed the old
man. “In any case, it’s good that you’ve learned that everything in
life has its price. This is what the Warriors of the Light try to teach.”
The old man returned the book to the boy.
“Tomorrow, at this same time, bring me a tenth of your flock.
And I will tell you how to find the hidden treasure. Good afternoon.”
And he vanished around the corner of the plaza.
THE BOY BEGAN AGAIN TO READ HIS BOOK, BUT HE WAS NO longer able to
concentrate. He was tense and upset, because he knew that the old
man was right. He went over to the bakery and bought a loaf of
bread, thinking about whether or not he should tell the baker what
the old man had said about him. Sometimes it’s better to leave
things as they are, he thought to himself, and decided to say nothing.
If he were to say anything, the baker would spend three days
thinking about giving it all up, even though he had gotten used to
the way things were. The boy could certainly resist causing that
kind of anxiety for the baker. So he began to wander through the
city, and found himself at the gates. There was a small building
there, with a window at which people bought tickets to Africa. And
he knew that Egypt was in Africa.
“Can I help you?” asked the man behind the window.
“Maybe tomorrow,” said the boy, moving away. If he sold just
one of his sheep, he’d have enough to get to the other shore of the
strait. The idea frightened him.
“Another dreamer,” said the ticket seller to his assistant,
watching the boy walk away. “He doesn’t have enough money to
travel.”
While standing at the ticket window, the boy had remembered
his flock, and decided he should go back to being a shepherd. In two
years he had learned everything about shepherding: he knew how
to shear sheep, how to care for pregnant ewes, and how to protect
the sheep from wolves. He knew all the fields and pastures of
Andalusia. And he knew what was the fair price for every one of his
animals.
He decided to return to his friend’s stable by the longest route
possible. As he walked past the city’s castle, he interrupted his
return, and climbed the stone ramp that led to the top of the wall.
From there, he could see Africa in the distance. Someone had once
told him that it was from there that the Moors had come, to occupy
all of Spain.
He could see almost the entire city from where he sat, including
the plaza where he had talked with the old man. Curse the moment I
met that old man, he thought. He had come to the town only to find
a woman who could interpret his dream. Neither the woman nor the
old man was at all impressed by the fact that he was a shepherd.
They were solitary individuals who no longer believed in things,
and didn’t understand that shepherds become attached to their
sheep. He knew everything about each member of his flock: he
knew which ones were lame, which one was to give birth two
months from now, and which were the laziest. He knew how to
shear them, and how to slaughter them. If he ever decided to leave
them, they would suffer.
The wind began to pick up. He knew that wind: people called it
the levanter, because on it the Moors had come from the Levant at
the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
The levanter increased in intensity. Here I am, between my flock
and my treasure, the boy thought. He had to choose between
something he had become accustomed to and something he wanted
to have. There was also the merchant’s daughter, but she wasn’t as
important as his flock, because she didn’t depend on him. Maybe she
didn’t even remember him. He was sure that it made no difference
to her on which day he appeared: for her, every day was the same,
and when each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to
recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that
the sun rises.
I left my father, my mother, and the town castle behind. They
have gotten used to my being away, and so have I. The sheep will get
used to my not being there, too, the boy thought.
From where he sat, he could observe the plaza. People continued
to come and go from the baker’s shop. A young couple sat on the
bench where he had talked with the old man, and they kissed.
“That baker…” he said to himself, without completing the
thought. The levanter was still getting stronger, and he felt its force
on his face. That wind had brought the Moors, yes, but it had also
brought the smell of the desert and of veiled women. It had brought
with it the sweat and the dreams of men who had once left to search
for the unknown, and for gold and adventure—and for the
Pyramids. The boy felt jealous of the freedom of the wind, and saw
that he could have the same freedom. There was nothing to hold
him back except himself. The sheep, the merchant’s daughter, and
the fields of Andalusia were only steps along the way to his Personal
Legend.
The next day, the boy met the old man at noon. He brought six
sheep with him.
“I’m surprised,” the boy said. “My friend bought all the other
sheep immediately. He said that he had always dreamed of being a
shepherd, and that it was a good omen.”
“That’s the way it always is,” said the old man. “It’s called the
principle of favorability. When you play cards the first time, you are
almost sure to win. Beginner’s luck.”
“Why is that?”
“Because there is a force that wants you to realize your Personal
Legend; it whets your appetite with a taste of success.”
Then the old man began to inspect the sheep, and he saw that
one was lame. The boy explained that it wasn’t important, since that
sheep was the most intelligent of the flock, and produced the most
wool.
“Where is the treasure?” he asked.
“It’s in Egypt, near the Pyramids.”
The boy was startled. The old woman had said the same thing.
But she hadn’t charged him anything.
“In order to find the treasure, you will have to follow the omens.
God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to
read the omens that he left for you.”
Before the boy could reply, a butterfly appeared and fluttered
between him and the old man. He remembered something his
grandfather had once told him: that butterflies were a good omen.
Like crickets, and like grasshoppers; like lizards and four-leaf
clovers.
“That’s right,” said the old man, able to read the boy’s thoughts.
“Just as your grandfather taught you. These are good omens.”
The old man opened his cape, and the boy was struck by what he
saw. The old man wore a breastplate of heavy gold, covered with
precious stones. The boy recalled the brilliance he had noticed on
the previous day.
He really was a king! He must be disguised to avoid encounters
with thieves.
“Take these,” said the old man, holding out a white stone and a
black stone that had been embedded at the center of the
breastplate. “They are called Urim and Thummim. The black
signifies ‘yes,’ and the white ‘no.’ When you are unable to read the
omens, they will help you to do so. Always ask an objective
question.
“But, if you can, try to make your own decisions. The treasure is
at the Pyramids; that you already knew. But I had to insist on the
payment of six sheep because I helped you to make your decision.”
The boy put the stones in his pouch. From then on, he would
make his own decisions.
“Don’t forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and
nothing else. And don’t forget the language of omens. And, above all,
don’t forget to follow your Personal Legend through to its
conclusion.
“But before I go, I want to tell you a little story.
“A certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of
happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered
through the desert for forty days, and finally came upon a beautiful
castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.
“Rather than finding a saintly man, though, our hero, on entering
the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came
and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra
was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters
of the most delicious food in that part of the world. The wise man
conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours
before it was his turn to be given the man’s attention.
“The wise man listened attentively to the boy’s explanation of
why he had come, but told him that he didn’t have time just then to
explain the secret of happiness. He suggested that the boy look
around the palace and return in two hours.
“‘Meanwhile, I want to ask you to do something,’ said the wise
man, handing the boy a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. ‘As you
wander around, carry this spoon with you without allowing the oil
to spill.’
“The boy began climbing and descending the many stairways of
the palace, keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he
returned to the room where the wise man was.
“‘Well,’ asked the wise man, ‘did you see the Persian tapestries
that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that it
took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the
beautiful parchments in my library?’
“The boy was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed
nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise
man had entrusted to him.
“‘Then go back and observe the marvels of my world,’ said the
wise man. ‘You cannot trust a man if you don’t know his house.’
“Relieved, the boy picked up the spoon and returned to his
exploration of the palace, this time observing all of the works of art
on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all
around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the taste with which
everything had been selected. Upon returning to the wise man, he
related in detail everything he had seen.
“‘But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you?’ asked the
wise man.
“Looking down at the spoon he held, the boy saw that the oil was
gone.
“‘Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you,’ said the
wisest of wise men. ‘The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels
of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.’”
The shepherd said nothing. He had understood the story the old
king had told him. A shepherd may like to travel, but he should
never forget about his sheep.
The old man looked at the boy and, with his hands held together,
made several strange gestures over the boy’s head. Then, taking his
sheep, he walked away.
AT THE HIGHEST POINT IN TARIFA THERE IS AN OLD FORT, built by the
Moors. From atop its walls, one can catch a glimpse of Africa.
Melchizedek, the king of Salem, sat on the wall of the fort that
afternoon, and felt the levanter blowing in his face. The sheep
fidgeted nearby, uneasy with their new owner and excited by so
much change. All they wanted was food and water.
Melchizedek watched a small ship that was plowing its way out
of the port. He would never again see the boy, just as he had never
seen Abraham again after having charged him his one-tenth fee.
That was his work.
The gods should not have desires, because they don’t have
Personal Legends. But the king of Salem hoped desperately that the
boy would be successful.
It’s too bad that he’s quickly going to forget my name, he
thought. I should have repeated it for him. Then when he spoke
about me he would say that I am Melchizedek, the king of Salem.
He looked to the skies, feeling a bit abashed, and said, “I know
it’s the vanity of vanities, as you said, my Lord. But an old king
sometimes has to take some pride in himself.”
HOW STRANGE AFRICA IS, THOUGHT THE BOY.
He was sitting in a bar very much like the other bars he had seen
along the narrow streets of Tangier. Some men were smoking from
a gigantic pipe that they passed from one to the other. In just a few
hours he had seen men walking hand in hand, women with their
faces covered, and priests that climbed to the tops of towers and
chanted—as everyone about him went to their knees and placed
their foreheads on the ground.
“A practice of infidels,” he said to himself. As a child in church, he
had always looked at the image of Saint Santiago Matamoros on his
white horse, his sword unsheathed, and figures such as these
kneeling at his feet. The boy felt ill and terribly alone. The infidels
had an evil look about them.
Besides this, in the rush of his travels he had forgotten a detail,
just one detail, which could keep him from his treasure for a long
time: only Arabic was spoken in this country.
The owner of the bar approached him, and the boy pointed to a
drink that had been served at the next table. It turned out to be a
bitter tea. The boy preferred wine.
But he didn’t need to worry about that right now. What he had
to be concerned about was his treasure, and how he was going to go
about getting it. The sale of his sheep had left him with enough
money in his pouch, and the boy knew that in money there was
magic; whoever has money is never really alone. Before long, maybe
in just a few days, he would be at the Pyramids. An old man, with a
breastplate of gold, wouldn’t have lied just to acquire six sheep.
The old man had spoken about signs and omens, and, as the boy
was crossing the strait, he had thought about omens. Yes, the old
man had known what he was talking about: during the time the boy
had spent in the fields of Andalusia, he had become used to learning
which path he should take by observing the ground and the sky. He
had discovered that the presence of a certain bird meant that a
snake was nearby, and that a certain shrub was a sign that there
was water in the area. The sheep had taught him that.
If God leads the sheep so well, he will also lead a man, he
thought, and that made him feel better. The tea seemed less bitter.
“Who are you?” he heard a voice ask him in Spanish.
The boy was relieved. He was thinking about omens, and
someone had appeared.
“How come you speak Spanish?” he asked. The new arrival was a
young man in Western dress, but the color of his skin suggested he
was from this city. He was about the same age and height as the boy.
“Almost everyone here speaks Spanish. We’re only two hours
from Spain.”
“Sit down, and let me treat you to something,” said the boy. “And
ask for a glass of wine for me. I hate this tea.”
“There is no wine in this country,” the young man said. “The
religion here forbids it.”
The boy told him then that he needed to get to the Pyramids. He
almost began to tell about his treasure, but decided not to do so. If
he did, it was possible that the Arab would want a part of it as
payment for taking him there. He remembered what the old man
had said about offering something you didn’t even have yet.
“I’d like you to take me there if you can. I can pay you to serve as
my guide.”
“Do you have any idea how to get there?” the newcomer asked.
The boy noticed that the owner of the bar stood nearby,
listening attentively to their conversation. He felt uneasy at the
man’s presence. But he had found a guide, and didn’t want to miss
out on an opportunity.
“You have to cross the entire Sahara desert,” said the young man.
“And to do that, you need money. I need to know whether you have
enough.”
The boy thought it a strange question. But he trusted in the old
man, who had said that, when you really want something, the
universe always conspires in your favor.
He took his money from his pouch and showed it to the young
man. The owner of the bar came over and looked, as well. The two
men exchanged some words in Arabic, and the bar owner seemed
irritated.
“Let’s get out of here,” said the new arrival. “He wants us to
leave.”
The boy was relieved. He got up to pay the bill, but the owner
grabbed him and began to speak to him in an angry stream of
words. The boy was strong, and wanted to retaliate, but he was in a
foreign country. His new friend pushed the owner aside, and pulled
the boy outside with him. “He wanted your money,” he said.
“Tangier is not like the rest of Africa. This is a port, and every port
has its thieves.”
The boy trusted his new friend. He had helped him out in a
dangerous situation. He took out his money and counted it.
“We could get to the Pyramids by tomorrow,” said the other,
taking the money. “But I have to buy two camels.”
They walked together through the narrow streets of Tangier.
Everywhere there were stalls with items for sale. They reached the
center of a large plaza where the market was held. There were
thousands of people there, arguing, selling, and buying; vegetables
for sale amongst daggers, and carpets displayed alongside tobacco.
But the boy never took his eye off his new friend. After all, he had all
his money. He thought about asking him to give it back, but decided
that would be unfriendly. He knew nothing about the customs of the
strange land he was in.
“I’ll just watch him,” he said to himself. He knew he was stronger
than his friend.
Suddenly, there in the midst of all that confusion, he saw the
most beautiful sword he had ever seen. The scabbard was embossed
in silver, and the handle was black and encrusted with precious
stones. The boy promised himself that, when he returned from
Egypt, he would buy that sword.
“Ask the owner of that stall how much the sword costs,” he said
to his friend. Then he realized that he had been distracted for a few
moments, looking at the sword. His heart squeezed, as if his chest
had suddenly compressed it. He was afraid to look around, because
he knew what he would find. He continued to look at the beautiful
sword for a bit longer, until he summoned the courage to turn
around.
All around him was the market, with people coming and going,
shouting and buying, and the aroma of strange foods…but nowhere
could he find his new companion.
The boy wanted to believe that his friend had simply become
separated from him by accident. He decided to stay right there and
await his return. As he waited, a priest climbed to the top of a
nearby tower and began his chant; everyone in the market fell to
their knees, touched their foreheads to the ground, and took up the
chant. Then, like a colony of worker ants, they dismantled their
stalls and left.
The sun began its departure, as well. The boy watched it through
its trajectory for some time, until it was hidden behind the white
houses surrounding the plaza. He recalled that when the sun had
risen that morning, he was on another continent, still a shepherd
with sixty sheep, and looking forward to meeting with a girl. That
morning he had known everything that was going to happen to him
as he walked through the familiar fields. But now, as the sun began
to set, he was in a different country, a stranger in a strange land,
where he couldn’t even speak the language. He was no longer a
shepherd, and he had nothing, not even the money to return and
start everything over.
All this happened between sunrise and sunset, the boy thought.
He was feeling sorry for himself, and lamenting the fact that his life
could have changed so suddenly and so drastically.
He was so ashamed that he wanted to cry. He had never even
wept in front of his own sheep. But the marketplace was empty, and
he was far from home, so he wept. He wept because God was unfair,
and because this was the way God repaid those who believed in
their dreams.
When I had my sheep, I was happy, and I made those around me
happy. People saw me coming and welcomed me, he thought. But
now I’m sad and alone. I’m going to become bitter and distrustful of
people because one person betrayed me. I’m going to hate those
who have found their treasure because I never found mine. And I’m
going to hold on to what little I have, because I’m too insignificant to
conquer the world.
He opened his pouch to see what was left of his possessions;
maybe there was a bit left of the sandwich he had eaten on the ship.
But all he found was the heavy book, his jacket, and the two stones
the old man had given him.
As he looked at the stones, he felt relieved for some reason. He
had exchanged six sheep for two precious stones that had been
taken from a gold breastplate. He could sell the stones and buy a
return ticket. But this time I’ll be smarter, the boy thought,
removing them from the pouch so he could put them in his pocket.
This was a port town, and the only truthful thing his friend had told
him was that port towns are full of thieves.
Now he understood why the owner of the bar had been so upset:
he was trying to tell him not to trust that man. “I’m like everyone
else—I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen,
not what actually does.”
He ran his fingers slowly over the stones, sensing their
temperature and feeling their surfaces. They were his treasure. Just
handling them made him feel better. They reminded him of the old
man.
“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping
you to achieve it,” he had said.
The boy was trying to understand the truth of what the old man
had said. There he was in the empty marketplace, without a cent to
his name, and with not a sheep to guard through the night. But the
stones were proof that he had met with a king—a king who knew of
the boy’s past.
“They’re called Urim and Thummim, and they can help you to
read the omens.” The boy put the stones back in the pouch and
decided to do an experiment. The old man had said to ask very clear
questions, and to do that, the boy had to know what he wanted. So,
he asked if the old man’s blessing was still with him.
He took out one of the stones. It was “yes.”
“Am I going to find my treasure?” he asked.
He stuck his hand into the pouch, and felt around for one of the
stones. As he did so, both of them pushed through a hole in the
pouch and fell to the ground. The boy had never even noticed that
there was a hole in his pouch. He knelt down to find Urim and
Thummim and put them back in the pouch. But as he saw them lying
there on the ground, another phrase came to his mind.
“Learn to recognize omens, and follow them,” the old king had
said.
An omen. The boy smiled to himself. He picked up the two
stones and put them back in his pouch. He didn’t consider mending
the hole—the stones could fall through any time they wanted. He
had learned that there were certain things one shouldn’t ask about,
so as not to flee from one’s own Personal Legend. “I promised that I
would make my own decisions,” he said to himself.
But the stones had told him that the old man was still with him,
and that made him feel more confident. He looked around at the
empty plaza again, feeling less desperate than before. This wasn’t a
strange place; it was a new one.
After all, what he had always wanted was just that: to know new
places. Even if he never got to the Pyramids, he had already traveled
farther than any shepherd he knew. Oh, if they only knew how
different things are just two hours by ship from where they are, he
thought. Although his new world at the moment was just an empty
marketplace, he had already seen it when it was teeming with life,
and he would never forget it. He remembered the sword. It hurt him
a bit to think about it, but he had never seen one like it before. As he
mused about these things, he realized that he had to choose
between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief and as an
adventurer in quest of his treasure.
“I’m an adventurer, looking for treasure,” he said to himself.
HE WAS SHAKEN INTO WAKEFULNESS BY SOMEONE. HE had fallen asleep in
the middle of the marketplace, and life in the plaza was about to
resume.
Looking around, he sought his sheep, and then realized that he
was in a new world. But instead of being saddened, he was happy.
He no longer had to seek out food and water for the sheep; he could
go in search of his treasure, instead. He had not a cent in his pocket,
but he had faith. He had decided, the night before, that he would be
as much an adventurer as the ones he had admired in books.
He walked slowly through the market. The merchants were
assembling their stalls, and the boy helped a candy seller to do his.
The candy seller had a smile on his face: he was happy, aware of
what his life was about, and ready to begin a day’s work. His smile
reminded the boy of the old man—the mysterious old king he had
met. “This candy merchant isn’t making candy so that later he can
travel or marry a shopkeeper’s daughter. He’s doing it because it’s
what he wants to do,” thought the boy. He realized that he could do
the same thing the old man had done—sense whether a person was
near to or far from his Personal Legend. Just by looking at them. It’s
easy, and yet I’ve never done it before, he thought.
When the stall was assembled, the candy seller offered the boy
the first sweet he had made for the day. The boy thanked him, ate it,
and went on his way. When he had gone only a short distance, he
realized that, while they were erecting the stall, one of them had
spoken Arabic and the other Spanish.
And they had understood each other perfectly well.
There must be a language that doesn’t depend on words, the boy
thought. I’ve already had that experience with my sheep, and now
it’s happening with people.
He was learning a lot of new things. Some of them were things
that he had already experienced, and weren’t really new, but that he
had never perceived before. And he hadn’t perceived them because
he had become accustomed to them. He realized: If I can learn to
understand this language without words, I can learn to understand
the world.
Relaxed and unhurried, he resolved that he would walk through
the narrow streets of Tangier. Only in that way would he be able to
read the omens. He knew it would require a lot of patience, but
shepherds know all about patience. Once again he saw that, in that
strange land, he was applying the same lessons he had learned with
his sheep.
“All things are one,” the old man had said.
THE CRYSTAL MERCHANT AWOKE WITH THE DAY, AND FELT the same anxiety
that he felt every morning. He had been in the same place for thirty
years: a shop at the top of a hilly street where few customers
passed. Now it was too late to change anything—the only thing he
had ever learned to do was to buy and sell crystal glassware. There
had been a time when many people knew of his shop: Arab
merchants, French and English geologists, German soldiers who
were always well-heeled. In those days it had been wonderful to be
selling crystal, and he had thought how he would become rich, and
have beautiful women at his side as he grew older.
But, as time passed, Tangier had changed. The nearby city of
Ceuta had grown faster than Tangier, and business had fallen off.
Neighbors moved away, and there remained only a few small shops
on the hill. And no one was going to climb the hill just to browse
through a few small shops.
But the crystal merchant had no choice. He had lived thirty years
of his life buying and selling crystal pieces, and now it was too late
to do anything else.
He spent the entire morning observing the infrequent comings
and goings in the street. He had done this for years, and knew the
schedule of everyone who passed. But, just before lunchtime, a boy
stopped in front of the shop. He was dressed normally, but the
practiced eyes of the crystal merchant could see that the boy had no
money to spend. Nevertheless, the merchant decided to delay his
lunch for a few minutes until the boy moved on.
A CARD HANGING IN THE DOORWAY ANNOUNCED THAT several languages
were spoken in the shop. The boy saw a man appear behind the
counter.
“I can clean up those glasses in the window, if you want,” said
the boy. “The way they look now, nobody is going to want to buy
them.”
The man looked at him without responding.
“In exchange, you could give me something to eat.”
The man still said nothing, and the boy sensed that he was going
to have to make a decision. In his pouch, he had his jacket—he
certainly wasn’t going to need it in the desert. Taking the jacket out,
he began to clean the glasses. In half an hour, he had cleaned all the
glasses in the window, and, as he was doing so, two customers had
entered the shop and bought some crystal.
When he had completed the cleaning, he asked the man for
something to eat. “Let’s go and have some lunch,” said the crystal
merchant.
He put a sign on the door, and they went to a small café nearby.
As they sat down at the only table in the place, the crystal merchant
laughed.
“You didn’t have to do any cleaning,” he said. “The Koran
requires me to feed a hungry person.”
“Well then, why did you let me do it?” the boy asked.
“Because the crystal was dirty. And both you and I needed to
cleanse our minds of negative thoughts.”
When they had eaten, the merchant turned to the boy and said,
“I’d like you to work in my shop. Two customers came in today
while you were working, and that’s a good omen.”
People talk a lot about omens, thought the shepherd. But they
really don’t know what they’re saying. Just as I hadn’t realized that
for so many years I had been speaking a language without words to
my sheep.
“Do you want to go to work for me?” the merchant asked.
“I can work for the rest of today,” the boy answered. “I’ll work all
night, until dawn, and I’ll clean every piece of crystal in your shop.
In return, I need money to get to Egypt tomorrow.”
The merchant laughed. “Even if you cleaned my crystal for an
entire year…even if you earned a good commission selling every
piece, you would still have to borrow money to get to Egypt. There
are thousands of kilometers of desert between here and there.”
There was a moment of silence so profound that it seemed the
city was asleep. No sound from the bazaars, no arguments among
the merchants, no men climbing to the towers to chant. No hope, no
adventure, no old kings or Personal Legends, no treasure, and no
Pyramids. It was as if the world had fallen silent because the boy’s
soul had. He sat there, staring blankly through the door of the café,
wishing that he had died, and that everything would end forever at
that moment.
The merchant looked anxiously at the boy. All the joy he had
seen that morning had suddenly disappeared.
“I can give you the money you need to get back to your country,
my son,” said the crystal merchant.
The boy said nothing. He got up, adjusted his clothing, and
picked up his pouch.
“I’ll work for you,” he said.
And after another long silence, he added, “I need money to buy
some sheep.”
PART TWO
THE BOY HAD BEEN WORKING FOR THE CRYSTAL MERCHANT for almost a
month, and he could see that it wasn’t exactly the kind of job that
would make him happy. The merchant spent the entire day
mumbling behind the counter, telling the boy to be careful with the
pieces and not to break anything.
But he stayed with the job because the merchant, although he
was an old grouch, treated him fairly; the boy received a good
commission for each piece he sold, and had already been able to put
some money aside. That morning he had done some calculating: if
he continued to work every day as he had been, he would need a
whole year to be able to buy some sheep.
“I’d like to build a display case for the crystal,” the boy said to
the merchant. “We could place it outside, and attract those people
who pass at the bottom of the hill.”
“I’ve never had one before,” the merchant answered. “People
will pass by and bump into it, and pieces will be broken.”
“Well, when I took my sheep through the fields some of them
might have died if we had come upon a snake. But that’s the way life
is with sheep and with shepherds.”
The merchant turned to a customer who wanted three crystal
glasses. He was selling better than ever…as if time had turned back
to the old days when the street had been one of Tangier’s major
attractions.
“Business has really improved,” he said to the boy, after the
customer had left. “I’m doing much better, and soon you’ll be able to
return to your sheep. Why ask more out of life?”
“Because we have to respond to omens,” the boy said, almost
without meaning to; then he regretted what he had said, because
the merchant had never met the king.
“It’s called the principle of favorability, beginner’s luck. Because
life wants you to achieve your Personal Legend,” the old king had
said.
But the merchant understood what the boy had said. The boy’s
very presence in the shop was an omen, and, as time passed and
money was pouring into the cash drawer, he had no regrets about
having hired the boy. The boy was being paid more money than he
deserved, because the merchant, thinking that sales wouldn’t
amount to much, had offered the boy a high commission rate. He
had assumed he would soon return to his sheep.
“Why did you want to get to the Pyramids?” he asked, to get
away from the business of the display.
“Because I’ve always heard about them,” the boy answered,
saying nothing about his dream. The treasure was now nothing but
a painful memory, and he tried to avoid thinking about it.
“I don’t know anyone around here who would want to cross the
desert just to see the Pyramids,” said the merchant. “They’re just a
pile of stones. You could build one in your backyard.”
“You’ve never had dreams of travel,” said the boy, turning to
wait on a customer who had entered the shop.
Two days later, the merchant spoke to the boy about the display.
“I don’t much like change,” he said. “You and I aren’t like Hassan,
that rich merchant. If he makes a buying mistake, it doesn’t affect
him much. But we two have to live with our mistakes.”
That’s true enough, the boy thought, ruefully.
“Why did you think we should have the display?”
“I want to get back to my sheep faster. We have to take
advantage when luck is on our side, and do as much to help it as it’s
doing to help us. It’s called the principle of favorability. Or
beginner’s luck.”
The merchant was silent for a few moments. Then he said, “The
Prophet gave us the Koran, and left us just five obligations to satisfy
during our lives. The most important is to believe only in the one
true God. The others are to pray five times a day, fast during
Ramadan, and be charitable to the poor.”
He stopped there. His eyes filled with tears as he spoke of the
Prophet. He was a devout man, and, even with all his impatience, he
wanted to live his life in accordance with Muslim law.
“What’s the fifth obligation?” the boy asked.
“Two days ago, you said that I had never dreamed of travel,” the
merchant answered. “The fifth obligation of every Muslim is a
pilgrimage. We are obliged, at least once in our lives, to visit the
holy city of Mecca.
“Mecca is a lot farther away than the Pyramids. When I was
young, all I wanted to do was put together enough money to start
this shop. I thought that someday I’d be rich, and could go to Mecca.
I began to make some money, but I could never bring myself to
leave someone in charge of the shop; the crystals are delicate things.
At the same time, people were passing my shop all the time, heading
for Mecca. Some of them were rich pilgrims, traveling in caravans
with servants and camels, but most of the people making the
pilgrimage were poorer than I.
“All who went there were happy at having done so. They placed
the symbols of the pilgrimage on the doors of their houses. One of
them, a cobbler who made his living mending boots, said that he had
traveled for almost a year through the desert, but that he got more
tired when he had to walk through the streets of Tangier buying his
leather.”
“Well, why don’t you go to Mecca now?” asked the boy.
“Because it’s the thought of Mecca that keeps me alive. That’s
what helps me face these days that are all the same, these mute
crystals on the shelves, and lunch and dinner at that same horrible
café. I’m afraid that if my dream is realized, I’ll have no reason to go
on living.
“You dream about your sheep and the Pyramids, but you’re
different from me, because you want to realize your dreams. I just
want to dream about Mecca. I’ve already imagined a thousand times
crossing the desert, arriving at the Plaza of the Sacred Stone, the
seven times I walk around it before allowing myself to touch it. I’ve
already imagined the people who would be at my side, and those in
front of me, and the conversations and prayers we would share. But
I’m afraid that it would all be a disappointment, so I prefer just to
dream about it.”
That day, the merchant gave the boy permission to build the
display. Not everyone can see his dreams come true in the same
way.
TWO MORE MONTHS PASSED, AND THE SHELF BROUGHT many customers
into the crystal shop. The boy estimated that, if he worked for six
more months, he could return to Spain and buy sixty sheep, and yet
another sixty. In less than a year, he would have doubled his flock,
and he would be able to do business with the Arabs, because he was
now able to speak their strange language. Since that morning in the
marketplace, he had never again made use of Urim and Thummim,
because Egypt was now just as distant a dream for him as was
Mecca for the merchant. Anyway, the boy had become happy in his
work, and thought all the time about the day when he would
disembark at Tarifa as a winner.
“You must always know what it is that you want,” the old king
had said. The boy knew, and was now working toward it. Maybe it
was his treasure to have wound up in that strange land, met up with
a thief, and doubled the size of his flock without spending a cent.
He was proud of himself. He had learned some important things,
like how to deal in crystal, and about the language without
words…and about omens. One afternoon he had seen a man at the
top of the hill, complaining that it was impossible to find a decent
place to get something to drink after such a climb. The boy,
accustomed to recognizing omens, spoke to the merchant.
“Let’s sell tea to the people who climb the hill.”
“Lots of places sell tea around here,” the merchant said.
“But we could sell tea in crystal glasses. The people will enjoy
the tea and want to buy the glasses. I have been told that beauty is
the great seducer of men.”
The merchant didn’t respond, but that afternoon, after saying his
prayers and closing the shop, he invited the boy to sit with him and
share his hookah, that strange pipe used by the Arabs.
“What is it you’re looking for?” asked the old merchant.
“I’ve already told you. I need to buy my sheep back, so I have to
earn the money to do so.”
The merchant put some new coals in the hookah, and inhaled
deeply.
“I’ve had this shop for thirty years. I know good crystal from bad,
and everything else there is to know about crystal. I know its
dimensions and how it behaves. If we serve tea in crystal, the shop
is going to expand. And then I’ll have to change my way of life.”
“Well, isn’t that good?”
“I’m already used to the way things are. Before you came, I was
thinking about how much time I had wasted in the same place, while
my friends had moved on, and either went bankrupt or did better
than they had before. It made me very depressed. Now, I can see
that it hasn’t been too bad. The shop is exactly the size I always
wanted it to be. I don’t want to change anything, because I don’t
know how to deal with change. I’m used to the way I am.”
The boy didn’t know what to say. The old man continued, “You
have been a real blessing to me. Today, I understand something I
didn’t see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse. I don’t
want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth
and at horizons I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and
now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I’m going to feel
worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I
should be able to accomplish, and I don’t want to do so.”
It’s good I refrained from saying anything to the baker in Tarifa,
thought the boy to himself.
They went on smoking the pipe for a while as the sun began to
set. They were conversing in Arabic, and the boy was proud of
himself for being able to do so. There had been a time when he
thought that his sheep could teach him everything he needed to
know about the world. But they could never have taught him Arabic.
There are probably other things in the world that the sheep can’t
teach me, thought the boy as he regarded the old merchant. All they
ever do, really, is look for food and water. And maybe it wasn’t that
they were teaching me, but that I was learning from them.
“Maktub,” the merchant said, finally.
“What does that mean?”
“You would have to have been born an Arab to understand,” he
answered. “But in your language it would be something like ‘It is
written.’”
And, as he smothered the coals in the hookah, he told the boy
that he could begin to sell tea in the crystal glasses. Sometimes,
there’s just no way to hold back the river.
THE MEN CLIMBED THE HILL, AND THEY WERE TIRED when they reached
the top. But there they saw a crystal shop that offered refreshing
mint tea. They went in to drink the tea, which was served in
beautiful crystal glasses.
“My wife never thought of this,” said one, and he bought some
crystal—he was entertaining guests that night, and the guests
would be impressed by the beauty of the glassware. The other man
remarked that tea was always more delicious when it was served in
crystal, because the aroma was retained. The third said that it was a
tradition in the Orient to use crystal glasses for tea because it had
magical powers.
Before long, the news spread, and a great many people began to
climb the hill to see the shop that was doing something new in a
trade that was so old. Other shops were opened that served tea in
crystal, but they weren’t at the top of a hill, and they had little
business.
Eventually, the merchant had to hire two more employees. He
began to import enormous quantities of tea, along with his crystal,
and his shop was sought out by men and women with a thirst for
things new.
And, in that way, the months passed.
THE BOY AWOKE BEFORE DAWN. IT HAD BEEN ELEVEN months and nine
days since he had first set foot on the African continent.
He dressed in his Arabian clothing of white linen, bought
especially for this day. He put his headcloth in place and secured it
with a ring made of camel skin. Wearing his new sandals, he
descended the stairs silently.
The city was still sleeping. He prepared himself a sandwich and
drank some hot tea from a crystal glass. Then he sat in the sun-filled
doorway, smoking the hookah.
He smoked in silence, thinking of nothing, and listening to the
sound of the wind that brought the scent of the desert. When he had
finished his smoke, he reached into one of his pockets, and sat there
for a few moments, regarding what he had withdrawn.
It was a bundle of money. Enough to buy himself a hundred and
twenty sheep, a return ticket, and a license to import products from
Africa into his own country.
He waited patiently for the merchant to awaken and open the
shop. Then the two went off to have some more tea.
“I’m leaving today,” said the boy. “I have the money I need to buy
my sheep. And you have the money you need to go to Mecca.”
The old man said nothing.
“Will you give me your blessing?” asked the boy. “You have
helped me.” The man continued to prepare his tea, saying nothing.
Then he turned to the boy.
“I am proud of you,” he said. “You brought a new feeling into my
crystal shop. But you know that I’m not going to go to Mecca. Just as
you know that you’re not going to buy your sheep.”
“Who told you that?” asked the boy, startled.
“Maktub,” said the old crystal merchant.
And he gave the boy his blessing.
THE BOY WENT TO HIS ROOM AND PACKED HIS BELONGINGS. They filled three
sacks. As he was leaving, he saw, in the corner of the room, his old
shepherd’s pouch. It was bunched up, and he had hardly thought of
it for a long time. As he took his jacket out of the pouch, thinking to
give it to someone in the street, the two stones fell to the floor. Urim
and Thummim.
It made the boy think of the old king, and it startled him to
realize how long it had been since he had thought of him. For nearly
a year, he had been working incessantly, thinking only of putting
aside enough money so that he could return to Spain with pride.
“Never stop dreaming,” the old king had said. “Follow the
omens.”
The boy picked up Urim and Thummim, and, once again, had the
strange sensation that the old king was nearby. He had worked hard
for a year, and the omens were that it was time to go.
I’m going to go back to doing just what I did before, the boy
thought. Even though the sheep didn’t teach me to speak Arabic.
But the sheep had taught him something even more important:
that there was a language in the world that everyone understood, a
language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying
to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of
things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search
for something believed in and desired. Tangier was no longer a
strange city, and he felt that, just as he had conquered this place, he
could conquer the world.
“When you want something, all the universe conspires to help
you achieve it,” the old king had said.
But the old king hadn’t said anything about being robbed, or
about endless deserts, or about people who know what their
dreams are but don’t want to realize them. The old king hadn’t told
him that the Pyramids were just a pile of stones, or that anyone
could build one in his backyard. And he had forgotten to mention
that, when you have enough money to buy a flock larger than the
one you had before, you should buy it.
The boy picked up his pouch and put it with his other things. He
went down the stairs and found the merchant waiting on a foreign
couple, while two other customers walked about the shop, drinking
tea from crystal glasses. It was more activity than usual for this time
of the morning. From where he stood, he saw for the first time that
the old merchant’s hair was very much like the hair of the old king.
He remembered the smile of the candy seller, on his first day in
Tangier, when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to go—that smile
had also been like the old king’s smile.
It’s almost as if he had been here and left his mark, he thought.
And yet, none of these people has ever met the old king. On the
other hand, he said that he always appeared to help those who are
trying to realize their Personal Legend.
He left without saying good-bye to the crystal merchant. He
didn’t want to cry with the other people there. He was going to miss
the place and all the good things he had learned. He was more
confident in himself, though, and felt as though he could conquer
the world.
“But I’m going back to the fields that I know, to take care of my
flock again.” He said that to himself with certainty, but he was no
longer happy with his decision. He had worked for an entire year to
make a dream come true, and that dream, minute by minute, was
becoming less important. Maybe because that wasn’t really his
dream.
Who knows…maybe it’s better to be like the crystal merchant:
never go to Mecca, and just go through life wanting to do so, he
thought, again trying to convince himself. But as he held Urim and
Thummim in his hand, they had transmitted to him the strength and
will of the old king. By coincidence—or maybe it was an omen, the
boy thought—he came to the bar he had entered on his first day
there. The thief wasn’t there, and the owner brought him a cup of
tea.
I can always go back to being a shepherd, the boy thought. I
learned how to care for sheep, and I haven’t forgotten how that’s
done. But maybe I’ll never have another chance to get to the
Pyramids in Egypt. The old man wore a breastplate of gold, and he
knew about my past. He really was a king, a wise king.
The hills of Andalusia were only two hours away, but there was
an entire desert between him and the Pyramids. Yet the boy felt that
there was another way to regard his situation: he was actually two
hours closer to his treasure…the fact that the two hours had
stretched into an entire year didn’t matter.
I know why I want to get back to my flock, he thought. I
understand sheep; they’re no longer a problem, and they can be
good friends. On the other hand, I don’t know if the desert can be a
friend, and it’s in the desert that I have to search for my treasure. If I
don’t find it, I can always go home. I finally have enough money, and
all the time I need. Why not?
He suddenly felt tremendously happy. He could always go back
to being a shepherd. He could always become a crystal salesman
again. Maybe the world had other hidden treasures, but he had a
dream, and he had met with a king. That doesn’t happen to just
anyone!
He was planning as he left the bar. He had remembered that one
of the crystal merchant’s suppliers transported his crystal by means
of caravans that crossed the desert. He held Urim and Thummim in
his hand; because of those two stones, he was once again on the way
to his treasure.
“I am always nearby, when someone wants to realize their
Personal Legend,” the old king had told him.
What could it cost to go over to the supplier’s warehouse and
find out if the Pyramids were really that far away?
THE ENGLISHMAN WAS SITTING ON A BENCH IN A STRUCTURE that smelled of
animals, sweat, and dust; it was part warehouse, part corral. I never
thought I’d end up in a place like this, he thought, as he leafed
through the pages of a chemical journal. Ten years at the university,
and here I am in a corral.
But he had to move on. He believed in omens. All his life and all
his studies were aimed at finding the one true language of the
universe. First he had studied Esperanto, then the world’s religions,
and now it was alchemy. He knew how to speak Esperanto, he
understood all the major religions well, but he wasn’t yet an
alchemist. He had unraveled the truths behind important questions,
but his studies had taken him to a point beyond which he could not
seem to go. He had tried in vain to establish a relationship with an
alchemist. But the alchemists were strange people, who thought
only about themselves, and almost always refused to help him. Who
knows, maybe they had failed to discover the secret of the Master
Work—the Philosopher’s Stone—and for this reason kept their
knowledge to themselves.
He had already spent much of the fortune left to him by his
father, fruitlessly seeking the Philosopher’s Stone. He had spent
enormous amounts of time at the great libraries of the world, and
had purchased all the rarest and most important volumes on
alchemy. In one he had read that, many years ago, a famous Arabian
alchemist had visited Europe. It was said that he was more than two
hundred years old, and that he had discovered the Philosopher’s
Stone and the Elixir of Life. The Englishman had been profoundly
impressed by the story. But he would never have thought it more
than just a myth, had not a friend of his—returning from an
archaeological expedition in the desert—told him about an Arab
that was possessed of exceptional powers.
“He lives at the Al-Fayoum oasis,” his friend had said. “And
people say that he is two hundred years old, and is able to
transform any metal into gold.”
The Englishman could not contain his excitement. He canceled
all his commitments and pulled together the most important of his
books, and now here he was, sitting inside a dusty, smelly
warehouse. Outside, a huge caravan was being prepared for a
crossing of the Sahara, and was scheduled to pass through Al-
Fayoum.
I’m going to find that damned alchemist, the Englishman
thought. And the odor of the animals became a bit more tolerable.
A young Arab, also loaded down with baggage, entered, and
greeted the Englishman.
“Where are you bound?” asked the young Arab.
“I’m going into the desert,” the man answered, turning back to
his reading. He didn’t want any conversation at this point. What he
needed to do was review all he had learned over the years, because
the alchemist would certainly put him to the test.
The young Arab took out a book and began to read. The book
was written in Spanish. That’s good, thought the Englishman. He
spoke Spanish better than Arabic, and, if this boy was going to Al-
Fayoum, there would be someone to talk to when there were no
other important things to do.
“THAT’S STRANGE,” SAID THE BOY, AS HE TRIED ONCE again to read the
burial scene that began the book. “I’ve been trying for two years to
read this book, and I never get past these first few pages.” Even
without a king to provide an interruption, he was unable to
concentrate.
He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he
was able to understand one thing: making a decision was only the
beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really
diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had
never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
When I decided to seek out my treasure, I never imagined that
I’d wind up working in a crystal shop, he thought. And joining this
caravan may have been my decision, but where it goes is going to be
a mystery to me.
Nearby was the Englishman, reading a book. He seemed
unfriendly, and had looked irritated when the boy had entered.
They might even have become friends, but the Englishman closed
off the conversation.
The boy closed his book. He felt that he didn’t want to do
anything that might make him look like the Englishman. He took
Urim and Thummim from his pocket, and began playing with them.
The stranger shouted, “Urim and Thummim!”
In a flash the boy put them back in his pocket.
“They’re not for sale,” he said.
“They’re not worth much,” the Englishman answered. “They’re
only made of rock crystal, and there are millions of rock crystals in
the earth. But those who know about such things would know that
those are Urim and Thummim. I didn’t know that they had them in
this part of the world.”
“They were given to me as a present by a king,” the boy said.
The stranger didn’t answer; instead, he put his hand in his
pocket, and took out two stones that were the same as the boy’s.
“Did you say a king?” he asked.
“I guess you don’t believe that a king would talk to someone like
me, a shepherd,” he said, wanting to end the conversation.
“Not at all. It was shepherds who were the first to recognize a
king that the rest of the world refused to acknowledge. So, it’s not
surprising that kings would talk to shepherds.”
And he went on, fearing that the boy wouldn’t understand what
he was talking about, “It’s in the Bible. The same book that taught
me about Urim and Thummim. These stones were the only form of
divination permitted by God. The priests carried them in a golden
breastplate.”
The boy was suddenly happy to be there at the warehouse.
“Maybe this is an omen,” said the Englishman, half aloud.
“Who told you about omens?” The boy’s interest was increasing
by the moment.
“Everything in life is an omen,” said the Englishman, now closing
the journal he was reading. “There is a universal language,
understood by everybody, but already forgotten. I am in search of
that universal language, among other things. That’s why I’m here. I
have to find a man who knows that universal language. An
alchemist.”
The conversation was interrupted by the warehouse boss.
“You’re in luck, you two,” the fat Arab said. “There’s a caravan
leaving today for Al-Fayoum.”
“But I’m going to Egypt,” the boy said.
“Al-Fayoum is in Egypt,” said the Arab. “What kind of Arab are
you?”
“That’s a good luck omen,” the Englishman said, after the fat
Arab had gone out. “If I could, I’d write a huge encyclopedia just
about the words luck and coincidence. It’s with those words that the
universal language is written.”
He told the boy it was no coincidence that he had met him with
Urim and Thummim in his hand. And he asked the boy if he, too,
were in search of the alchemist.
“I’m looking for a treasure,” said the boy, and he immediately
regretted having said it. But the Englishman appeared not to attach
any importance to it.
“In a way, so am I,” he said.
“I don’t even know what alchemy is,” the boy was saying, when
the warehouse boss called to them to come outside.
“I’M THE LEADER OF THE CARAVAN,” SAID A DARK-EYED, bearded man. “I
hold the power of life and death for every person I take with me.
The desert is a capricious lady, and sometimes she drives men
crazy.”
There were almost two hundred people gathered there, and four
hundred animals—camels, horses, mules, and fowl. In the crowd
were women, children, and a number of men with swords at their
belts and rifles slung on their shoulders. The Englishman had
several suitcases filled with books. There was a babble of noise, and
the leader had to repeat himself several times for everyone to
understand what he was saying.
“There are a lot of different people here, and each has his own
God. But the only God I serve is Allah, and in his name I swear that I
will do everything possible once again to win out over the desert.
But I want each and every one of you to swear by the God you
believe in that you will follow my orders no matter what. In the
desert, disobedience means death.”
There was a murmur from the crowd. Each was swearing quietly
to his or her own God. The boy swore to Jesus Christ. The
Englishman said nothing. And the murmur lasted longer than a
simple vow would have. The people were also praying to heaven for
protection.
A long note was sounded on a bugle, and everyone mounted up.
The boy and the Englishman had bought camels, and climbed
uncertainly onto their backs. The boy felt sorry for the Englishman’s
camel, loaded down as he was with the cases of books.
“There’s no such thing as coincidence,” said the Englishman,
picking up the conversation where it had been interrupted in the
warehouse. “I’m here because a friend of mine heard of an Arab
who…”
But the caravan began to move, and it was impossible to hear
what the Englishman was saying. The boy knew what he was about
to describe, though: the mysterious chain that links one thing to
another, the same chain that had caused him to become a shepherd,
that had caused his recurring dream, that had brought him to a city
near Africa, to find a king, and to be robbed in order to meet a
crystal merchant, and…
The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more
that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being, thought the
boy.
The caravan moved toward the east. It traveled during the
morning, halted when the sun was at its strongest, and resumed late
in the afternoon. The boy spoke very little with the Englishman, who
spent most of his time with his books.
The boy observed in silence the progress of the animals and
people across the desert. Now everything was quite different from
how it was that day they had set out: then, there had been confusion
and shouting, the cries of children and the whinnying of animals, all
mixed with the nervous orders of the guides and the merchants.
But, in the desert, there was only the sound of the eternal wind,
and of the hoofbeats of the animals. Even the guides spoke very
little to one another.
“I’ve crossed these sands many times,” said one of the camel
drivers one night. “But the desert is so huge, and the horizons so
distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should
remain silent.”
The boy understood intuitively what he meant, even without
ever having set foot in the desert before. Whenever he saw the sea,
or a fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force.
I’ve learned things from the sheep, and I’ve learned things from
crystal, he thought. I can learn something from the desert, too. It
seems old and wise.
The wind never stopped, and the boy remembered the day he
had sat at the fort in Tarifa with this same wind blowing in his face.
It reminded him of the wool from his sheep…his sheep who were
now seeking food and water in the fields of Andalusia, as they
always had.
“They’re not my sheep anymore,” he said to himself, without
nostalgia. “They must be used to their new shepherd, and have
probably already forgotten me. That’s good. Creatures like the
sheep, that are used to traveling, know about moving on.”
He thought of the merchant’s daughter, and was sure that she
had probably married. Perhaps to a baker, or to another shepherd
who could read and could tell her exciting stories—after all, he
probably wasn’t the only one. But he was excited at his intuitive
understanding of the camel driver’s comment: maybe he was also
learning the universal language that deals with the past and the
present of all people. “Hunches,” his mother used to call them. The
boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden
immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the
histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know
everything, because it’s all written there.
“Maktub,” the boy said, remembering the crystal merchant.
The desert was all sand in some stretches, and rocky in others.
When the caravan was blocked by a boulder, it had to go around it;
if there was a large rocky area, they had to make a major detour. If
the sand was too fine for the animals’ hooves, they sought a way
where the sand was more substantial. In some places, the ground
was covered with the salt of dried-up lakes. The animals balked at
such places, and the camel drivers were forced to dismount and
unburden their charges. The drivers carried the freight themselves
over such treacherous footing, and then reloaded the camels. If a
guide were to fall ill or die, the camel drivers would draw lots and
appoint a new one.
But all this happened for one basic reason: no matter how many
detours and adjustments it made, the caravan moved toward the
same compass point. Once obstacles were overcome, it returned to
its course, sighting on a star that indicated the location of the oasis.
When the people saw that star shining in the morning sky, they
knew they were on the right course toward water, palm trees,
shelter, and other people. It was only the Englishman who was
unaware of all this; he was, for the most part, immersed in reading
his books.
The boy, too, had his book, and he had tried to read it during the
first few days of the journey. But he found it much more interesting
to observe the caravan and listen to the wind. As soon as he had
learned to know his camel better, and to establish a relationship
with him, he threw the book away. Although the boy had developed
a superstition that each time he opened the book he would learn
something important, he decided it was an unnecessary burden.
He became friendly with the camel driver who traveled
alongside him. At night, as they sat around the fire, the boy related
to the driver his adventures as a shepherd.
During one of these conversations, the driver told of his own life.
“I used to live near El Cairum,” he said. “I had my orchard, my
children, and a life that would change not at all until I died. One
year, when the crop was the best ever, we all went to Mecca, and I
satisfied the only unmet obligation in my life. I could die happily,
and that made me feel good.
“One day, the earth began to tremble, and the Nile overflowed its
banks. It was something that I thought could happen only to others,
never to me. My neighbors feared they would lose all their olive
trees in the flood, and my wife was afraid that we would lose our
children. I thought that everything I owned would be destroyed.
“The land was ruined, and I had to find some other way to earn a
living. So now I’m a camel driver. But that disaster taught me to
understand the word of Allah: people need not fear the unknown if
they are capable of achieving what they need and want.
“We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it’s our life or
our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we
understand that our life stories and the history of the world were
written by the same hand.”
Sometimes, their caravan met with another. One always had
something that the other needed—as if everything were indeed
written by one hand. As they sat around the fire, the camel drivers
exchanged information about windstorms, and told stories about
the desert.
At other times, mysterious, hooded men would appear; they
were Bedouins who did surveillance along the caravan route. They
provided warnings about thieves and barbarian tribes. They came
in silence and departed the same way, dressed in black garments
that showed only their eyes. One night, a camel driver came to the
fire where the Englishman and the boy were sitting. “There are
rumors of tribal wars,” he told them.
The three fell silent. The boy noted that there was a sense of fear
in the air, even though no one said anything. Once again he was
experiencing the language without words…the universal language.
The Englishman asked if they were in danger.
“Once you get into the desert, there’s no going back,” said the
camel driver. “And, when you can’t go back, you have to worry only
about the best way of moving forward. The rest is up to Allah,
including the danger.”
And he concluded by saying the mysterious word: “Maktub.”
“You should pay more attention to the caravan,” the boy said to
the Englishman, after the camel driver had left. “We make a lot of
detours, but we’re always heading for the same destination.”
“And you ought to read more about the world,” answered the
Englishman. “Books are like caravans in that respect.”
The immense collection of people and animals began to travel
faster. The days had always been silent, but now, even the nights—
when the travelers were accustomed to talking around the fires—
had also become quiet. And, one day, the leader of the caravan made
the decision that the fires should no longer be lighted, so as not to
attract attention to the caravan.
The travelers adopted the practice of arranging the animals in a
circle at night, sleeping together in the center as protection against
the nocturnal cold. And the leader posted armed sentinels at the
fringes of the group.
The Englishman was unable to sleep one night. He called to the
boy, and they took a walk along the dunes surrounding the
encampment. There was a full moon, and the boy told the
Englishman the story of his life.
The Englishman was fascinated with the part about the progress
achieved at the crystal shop after the boy began working there.
“That’s the principle that governs all things,” he said. “In
alchemy, it’s called the Soul of the World. When you want something
with all your heart, that’s when you are closest to the Soul of the
World. It’s always a positive force.”
He also said that this was not just a human gift, that everything
on the face of the earth had a soul, whether mineral, vegetable, or
animal—or even just a simple thought.
“Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because
the earth is alive…and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we
rarely recognize that it is working for us. But in the crystal shop you
probably realized that even the glasses were collaborating in your
success.”
The boy thought about that for a while as he looked at the moon
and the bleached sands. “I have watched the caravan as it crossed
the desert,” he said. “The caravan and the desert speak the same
language, and it’s for that reason that the desert allows the crossing.
It’s going to test the caravan’s every step to see if it’s in time, and, if
it is, we will make it to the oasis.”
“If either of us had joined this caravan based only on personal
courage, but without understanding that language, this journey
would have been much more difficult.”
They stood there looking at the moon.
“That’s the magic of omens,” said the boy. “I’ve seen how the
guides read the signs of the desert, and how the soul of the caravan
speaks to the soul of the desert.”
The Englishman said, “I’d better pay more attention to the
caravan.”
“And I’d better read your books,” said the boy.
THEY WERE STRANGE BOOKS. THEY SPOKE ABOUT MERCURY, salt, dragons,
and kings, and he didn’t understand any of it. But there was one idea
that seemed to repeat itself throughout all the books: all things are
the manifestation of one thing only.
In one of the books he learned that the most important text in
the literature of alchemy contained only a few lines, and had been
inscribed on the surface of an emerald.
“It’s the Emerald Tablet,” said the Englishman, proud that he
might teach something to the boy.
“Well, then, why do we need all these books?” the boy asked.
“So that we can understand those few lines,” the Englishman
answered, without appearing really to believe what he had said.
The book that most interested the boy told the stories of the
famous alchemists. They were men who had dedicated their entire
lives to the purification of metals in their laboratories; they believed
that, if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all
its individual properties, and what was left would be the Soul of the
World. This Soul of the World allowed them to understand anything
on the face of the earth, because it was the language with which all
things communicated. They called that discovery the Master
Work—it was part liquid and part solid.
“Can’t you just observe men and omens in order to understand
the language?” the boy asked.
“You have a mania for simplifying everything,” answered the
Englishman, irritated. “Alchemy is a serious discipline. Every step
has to be followed exactly as it was followed by the masters.”
The boy learned that the liquid part of the Master Work was
called the Elixir of Life, and that it cured all illnesses; it also kept the
alchemist from growing old. And the solid part was called the
Philosopher’s Stone.
“It’s not easy to find the Philosopher’s Stone,” said the
Englishman. “The alchemists spent years in their laboratories,
observing the fire that purified the metals. They spent so much time
close to the fire that gradually they gave up the vanities of the
world. They discovered that the purification of the metals had led to
a purification of themselves.”
The boy thought about the crystal merchant. He had said that it
was a good thing for the boy to clean the crystal pieces, so that he
could free himself from negative thoughts. The boy was becoming
more and more convinced that alchemy could be learned in one’s
daily life.
“Also,” said the Englishman, “the Philosopher’s Stone has a
fascinating property. A small sliver of the stone can transform large
quantities of metal into gold.”
Having heard that, the boy became even more interested in
alchemy. He thought that, with some patience, he’d be able to
transform everything into gold. He read the lives of the various
people who had succeeded in doing so: Helvétius, Elias, Fulcanelli,
and Geber. They were fascinating stories: each of them lived out his
Personal Legend to the end. They traveled, spoke with wise men,
performed miracles for the incredulous, and owned the
Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life.
But when the boy wanted to learn how to achieve the Master
Work, he became completely lost. There were just drawings, coded
instructions, and obscure texts.
“WHY DO THEY MAKE THINGS SO COMPLICATED?” HE asked the Englishman
one night. The boy had noticed that the Englishman was irritable,
and missed his books.
“So that those who have the responsibility for understanding can
understand,” he said. “Imagine if everyone went around
transforming lead into gold. Gold would lose its value.
“It’s only those who are persistent, and willing to study things
deeply, who achieve the Master Work. That’s why I’m here in the
middle of the desert. I’m seeking a true alchemist who will help me
to decipher the codes.”
“When were these books written?” the boy asked.
“Many centuries ago.”
“They didn’t have the printing press in those days,” the boy
argued. “There was no way for everybody to know about alchemy.
Why did they use such strange language, with so many drawings?”
The Englishman didn’t answer him directly. He said that for the
past few days he had been paying attention to how the caravan
operated, but that he hadn’t learned anything new. The only thing
he had noticed was that talk of war was becoming more and more
frequent.
THEN ONE DAY THE BOY RETURNED THE BOOKS TO THE Englishman. “Did
you learn anything?” the Englishman asked, eager to hear what it
might be. He needed someone to talk to so as to avoid thinking
about the possibility of war.
“I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever
understands that soul can also understand the language of things. I
learned that many alchemists realized their Personal Legends, and
wound up discovering the Soul of the World, the Philosopher’s
Stone, and the Elixir of Life.
“But, above all, I learned that these things are all so simple that
they could be written on the surface of an emerald.”
The Englishman was disappointed. The years of research, the
magic symbols, the strange words, and the laboratory
equipment…none of this had made an impression on the boy. His
soul must be too primitive to understand those things, he thought.
He took back his books and packed them away again in their
bags.
“Go back to watching the caravan,” he said. “That didn’t teach me
anything, either.”
The boy went back to contemplating the silence of the desert,
and the sand raised by the animals. “Everyone has his or her own
way of learning things,” he said to himself. “His way isn’t the same
as mine, nor mine as his. But we’re both in search of our Personal
Legends, and I respect him for that.”
THE CARAVAN BEGAN TO TRAVEL DAY AND NIGHT. THE hooded Bedouins
reappeared more and more frequently, and the camel driver—who
had become a good friend of the boy’s—explained that the war
between the tribes had already begun. The caravan would be very
lucky to reach the oasis.
The animals were exhausted, and the men talked among
themselves less and less. The silence was the worst aspect of the
night, when the mere groan of a camel—which before had been
nothing but the groan of a camel—now frightened everyone,
because it might signal a raid.
The camel driver, though, seemed not to be very concerned with
the threat of war.
“I’m alive,” he said to the boy, as they ate a bunch of dates one
night, with no fires and no moon. “When I’m eating, that’s all I think
about. If I’m on the march, I just concentrate on marching. If I have
to fight, it will be just as good a day to die as any other.
“Because I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m
interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the
present, you’ll be a happy man. You’ll see that there is life in the
desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight
because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you,
a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.”
Two nights later, as he was getting ready to bed down, the boy
looked for the star they followed every night. He thought that the
horizon was a bit lower than it had been, because he seemed to see
stars on the desert itself.
“It’s the oasis,” said the camel driver.
“Well, why don’t we go there right now?” the boy asked.
“Because we have to sleep.”
THE BOY AWOKE AS THE SUN ROSE. THERE, IN FRONT OF him, where the
small stars had been the night before, was an endless row of date
palms, stretching across the entire desert.
“We’ve done it!” said the Englishman, who had also awakened
early.
But the boy was quiet. He was at home with the silence of the
desert, and he was content just to look at the trees. He still had a
long way to go to reach the Pyramids, and someday this morning
would just be a memory. But this was the present moment—the
party the camel driver had mentioned—and he wanted to live it as
he did the lessons of his past and his dreams of the future. Although
the vision of the date palms would someday be just a memory, right
now it signified shade, water, and a refuge from the war. Yesterday,
the camel’s groan signaled danger, and now a row of date palms
could herald a miracle.
The world speaks many languages, the boy thought.
THE TIMES RUSH PAST, AND SO DO THE CARAVANS, thought the alchemist,
as he watched the hundreds of people and animals arriving at the
oasis. People were shouting at the new arrivals, dust obscured the
desert sun, and the children of the oasis were bursting with
excitement at the arrival of the strangers. The alchemist saw the
tribal chiefs greet the leader of the caravan, and converse with him
at length.
But none of that mattered to the alchemist. He had already seen
many people come and go, and the desert remained as it was. He
had seen kings and beggars walking the desert sands. The dunes
were changed constantly by the wind, yet these were the same
sands he had known since he was a child. He always enjoyed seeing
the happiness that the travelers experienced when, after weeks of
yellow sand and blue sky, they first saw the green of the date palms.
Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date
trees, he thought.
He decided to concentrate on more practical matters. He knew
that in the caravan there was a man to whom he was to teach some
of his secrets. The omens had told him so. He didn’t know the man
yet, but his practiced eye would recognize him when he appeared.
He hoped that it would be someone as capable as his previous
apprentice.
I don’t know why these things have to be transmitted by word of
mouth, he thought. It wasn’t exactly that they were secrets; God
revealed his secrets easily to all his creatures.
He had only one explanation for this fact: things have to be
transmitted this way because they were made up from the pure life,
and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words.
Because people become fascinated with pictures and words, and
wind up forgetting the Language of the World.
THE BOY COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS SEEING: THE oasis, rather than
being just a well surrounded by a few palm trees—as he had seen
once in a geography book—was much larger than many towns back
in Spain. There were three hundred wells, fifty thousand date trees,
and innumerable colored tents spread among them.
“It looks like A Thousand and One Nights,” said the Englishman,
impatient to meet with the alchemist.
They were surrounded by children, curious to look at the
animals and people that were arriving. The men of the oasis wanted
to know if they had seen any fighting, and the women competed
with one another for access to the cloth and precious stones
brought by the merchants. The silence of the desert was a distant
dream; the travelers in the caravan were talking incessantly,
laughing and shouting, as if they had emerged from the spiritual
world and found themselves once again in the world of people. They
were relieved and happy.
They had been taking careful precautions in the desert, but the
camel driver explained to the boy that oases were always
considered to be neutral territories, because the majority of the
inhabitants were women and children. There were oases
throughout the desert, but the tribesmen fought in the desert,
leaving the oases as places of refuge.
With some difficulty, the leader of the caravan brought all his
people together and gave them his instructions. The group was to
remain there at the oasis until the conflict between the tribes was
over. Since they were visitors, they would have to share living space
with those who lived there, and would be given the best
accommodations. That was the law of hospitality. Then he asked
that everyone, including his own sentinels, hand over their arms to
the men appointed by the tribal chieftains.
“Those are the rules of war,” the leader explained. “The oases
may not shelter armies or troops.”
To the boy’s surprise, the Englishman took a chrome-plated
revolver out of his bag and gave it to the men who were collecting
the arms.
“Why a revolver?” he asked.
“It helped me to trust in people,” the Englishman answered.
Meanwhile, the boy thought about his treasure. The closer he got
to the realization of his dream, the more difficult things became. It
seemed as if what the old king had called “beginner’s luck” were no
longer functioning. In his pursuit of the dream, he was being
constantly subjected to tests of his persistence and courage. So he
could not be hasty, nor impatient. If he pushed forward impulsively,
he would fail to see the signs and omens left by God along his path.
God placed them along my path. He had surprised himself with
the thought. Until then, he had considered the omens to be things of
this world. Like eating or sleeping, or like seeking love or finding a
job. He had never thought of them in terms of a language used by
God to indicate what he should do.
“Don’t be impatient,” he repeated to himself. “It’s like the camel
driver said: ‘Eat when it’s time to eat. And move along when it’s
time to move along.’”
That first day, everyone slept from exhaustion, including the
Englishman. The boy was assigned a place far from his friend, in a
tent with five other young men of about his age. They were people
of the desert, and clamored to hear his stories about the great cities.
The boy told them about his life as a shepherd, and was about to
tell them of his experiences at the crystal shop when the
Englishman came into the tent.
“I’ve been looking for you all morning,” he said, as he led the boy
outside. “I need you to help me find out where the alchemist lives.”
First, they tried to find him on their own. An alchemist would
probably live in a manner that was different from that of the rest of
the people at the oasis, and it was likely that in his tent an oven was
continuously burning. They searched everywhere, and found that
the oasis was much larger than they could have imagined; there
were hundreds of tents.
“We’ve wasted almost the entire day,” said the Englishman,
sitting down with the boy near one of the wells.
“Maybe we’d better ask someone,” the boy suggested.
The Englishman didn’t want to tell others about his reasons for
being at the oasis, and couldn’t make up his mind. But, finally, he
agreed that the boy, who spoke better Arabic than he, should do so.
The boy approached a woman who had come to the well to fill a
goatskin with water.
“Good afternoon, ma’am. I’m trying to find out where the
alchemist lives here at the oasis.”
The woman said she had never heard of such a person, and
hurried away. But before she fled, she advised the boy that he had
better not try to converse with women who were dressed in black,
because they were married women. He should respect tradition.
The Englishman was disappointed. It seemed he had made the
long journey for nothing. The boy was also saddened; his friend was
in pursuit of his Personal Legend. And, when someone was in such
pursuit, the entire universe made an effort to help him succeed—
that’s what the old king had said. He couldn’t have been wrong.
“I had never heard of alchemists before,” the boy said. “Maybe
no one here has, either.”
The Englishman’s eyes lit up. “That’s it! Maybe no one here
knows what an alchemist is! Find out who it is who cures the
people’s illnesses!”
Several women dressed in black came to the well for water, but
the boy would speak to none of them, despite the Englishman’s
insistence. Then a man approached.
“Do you know someone here who cures people’s illnesses?” the
boy asked.
“Allah cures our illnesses,” said the man, clearly frightened of the
strangers. “You’re looking for witch doctors.” He spoke some verses
from the Koran, and moved on.
Another man appeared. He was older, and was carrying a small
bucket. The boy repeated his question.
“Why do you want to find that sort of person?” the Arab asked.
“Because my friend here has traveled for many months in order
to meet with him,” the boy said.
“If such a man is here at the oasis, he must be the very powerful
one,” said the old man after thinking for a few moments. “Not even
the tribal chieftains are able to see him when they want to. Only
when he consents.
“Wait for the end of the war. Then leave with the caravan. Don’t
try to enter into the life of the oasis,” he said, and walked away.
But the Englishman was exultant. They were on the right track.
Finally, a young woman approached who was not dressed in
black. She had a vessel on her shoulder, and her head was covered
by a veil, but her face was uncovered. The boy approached her to
ask about the alchemist.
At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the
Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark
eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence,
he learned the most important part of the language that all the
world spoke—the language that everyone on earth was capable of
understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than
humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the
same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at
the well. She smiled, and that was certainly an omen—the omen he
had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life. The
omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his books, in the
crystals and in the silence of the desert.
It was the pure Language of the World. It required no
explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through
endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in
the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for
words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it
than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and
grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person
before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way
had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know
that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world
awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great
city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their
eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is
only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything
under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that
evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world.
Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.
Maktub, thought the boy.
The Englishman shook the boy: “Come on, ask her!”
The boy stepped closer to the girl, and when she smiled, he did
the same.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Fatima,” the girl said, averting her eyes.
“That’s what some women in my country are called.”
“It’s the name of the Prophet’s daughter,” Fatima said. “The
invaders carried the name everywhere.” The beautiful girl spoke of
the invaders with pride.
The Englishman prodded him, and the boy asked her about the
man who cured people’s illnesses.
“That’s the man who knows all the secrets of the world,” she
said. “He communicates with the genies of the desert.”
The genies were the spirits of good and evil. And the girl pointed
to the south, indicating that it was there the strange man lived. Then
she filled her vessel with water and left.
The Englishman vanished, too, gone to find the alchemist. And
the boy sat there by the well for a long time, remembering that one
day in Tarifa the levanter had brought to him the perfume of that
woman, and realizing that he had loved her before he even knew
she existed. He knew that his love for her would enable him to
discover every treasure in the world.
The next day, the boy returned to the well, hoping to see the girl.
To his surprise, the Englishman was there, looking out at the desert.
“I waited all afternoon and evening,” he said. “He appeared with
the first stars of evening. I told him what I was seeking, and he
asked me if I had ever transformed lead into gold. I told him that
was what I had come here to learn.
“He told me I should try to do so. That’s all he said: ‘Go and try.’”
The boy didn’t say anything. The poor Englishman had traveled
all this way, only to be told that he should repeat what he had
already done so many times.
“So, then try,” he said to the Englishman.
“That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to start now.”
As the Englishman left, Fatima arrived and filled her vessel with
water.
“I came to tell you just one thing,” the boy said. “I want you to be
my wife. I love you.”
The girl dropped the container, and the water spilled.
“I’m going to wait here for you every day. I have crossed the
desert in search of a treasure that is somewhere near the Pyramids,
and for me, the war seemed a curse. But now it’s a blessing, because
it brought me to you.”
“The war is going to end someday,” the girl said.
The boy looked around him at the date palms. He reminded
himself that he had been a shepherd, and that he could be a
shepherd again. Fatima was more important than his treasure.
“The tribesmen are always in search of treasure,” the girl said, as
if she had guessed what he was thinking. “And the women of the
desert are proud of their tribesmen.”
She refilled her vessel and left.
The boy went to the well every day to meet with Fatima. He told
her about his life as a shepherd, about the king, and about the
crystal shop. They became friends, and except for the fifteen
minutes he spent with her, each day seemed that it would never
pass. When he had been at the oasis for almost a month, the leader
of the caravan called a meeting of all of the people traveling with
him.
“We don’t know when the war will end, so we can’t continue our
journey,” he said. “The battles may last for a long time, perhaps even
years. There are powerful forces on both sides, and the war is
important to both armies. It’s not a battle of good against evil. It’s a
war between forces that are fighting for the balance of power, and,
when that type of battle begins, it lasts longer than others—because
Allah is on both sides.”
The people went back to where they were living, and the boy
went to meet with Fatima that afternoon. He told her about the
morning’s meeting. “The day after we met,” Fatima said, “you told
me that you loved me. Then, you taught me something of the
universal language and the Soul of the World. Because of that, I have
become a part of you.”
The boy listened to the sound of her voice, and thought it to be
more beautiful than the sound of the wind in the date palms.
“I have been waiting for you here at this oasis for a long time. I
have forgotten about my past, about my traditions, and the way in
which men of the desert expect women to behave. Ever since I was a
child, I have dreamed that the desert would bring me a wonderful
present. Now, my present has arrived, and it’s you.”
The boy wanted to take her hand. But Fatima’s hands held to the
handles of her jug.
“You have told me about your dreams, about the old king and
your treasure. And you’ve told me about omens. So now, I fear
nothing, because it was those omens that brought you to me. And I
am a part of your dream, a part of your Personal Legend, as you call
it.
“That’s why I want you to continue toward your goal. If you have
to wait until the war is over, then wait. But if you have to go before
then, go on in pursuit of your dream. The dunes are changed by the
wind, but the desert never changes. That’s the way it will be with
our love for each other.
“Maktub,” she said. “If I am really a part of your dream, you’ll
come back one day.”
The boy was sad as he left her that day. He thought of all the
married shepherds he had known. They had a difficult time
convincing their wives that they had to go off into distant fields.
Love required them to stay with the people they loved.
He told Fatima that, at their next meeting.
“The desert takes our men from us, and they don’t always
return,” she said. “We know that, and we are used to it. Those who
don’t return become a part of the clouds, a part of the animals that
hide in the ravines and of the water that comes from the earth. They
become a part of everything…they become the Soul of the World.
“Some do come back. And then the other women are happy
because they believe that their men may one day return, as well. I
used to look at those women and envy them their happiness. Now, I
too will be one of the women who wait.
“I’m a desert woman, and I’m proud of that. I want my husband
to wander as free as the wind that shapes the dunes. And, if I have
to, I will accept the fact that he has become a part of the clouds, and
the animals, and the water of the desert.”
The boy went to look for the Englishman. He wanted to tell him
about Fatima. He was surprised when he saw that the Englishman
had built himself a furnace outside his tent. It was a strange furnace,
fueled by firewood, with a transparent flask heating on top. As the
Englishman stared out at the desert, his eyes seemed brighter than
they had when he was reading his books.
“This is the first phase of the job,” he said. “I have to separate out
the sulfur. To do that successfully, I must have no fear of failure. It
was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master
Work. Now, I’m beginning what I could have started ten years ago.
But I’m happy at least that I didn’t wait twenty years.”
He continued to feed the fire, and the boy stayed on until the
desert turned pink in the setting sun. He felt the urge to go out into
the desert, to see if its silence held the answers to his questions.
He wandered for a while, keeping the date palms of the oasis
within sight. He listened to the wind, and felt the stones beneath his
feet. Here and there, he found a shell, and realized that the desert, in
remote times, had been a sea. He sat on a stone, and allowed himself
to become hypnotized by the horizon. He tried to deal with the
concept of love as distinct from possession, and couldn’t separate
them. But Fatima was a woman of the desert, and, if anything could
help him to understand, it was the desert.
As he sat there thinking, he sensed movement above him.
Looking up, he saw a pair of hawks flying high in the sky.
He watched the hawks as they drifted on the wind. Although
their flight appeared to have no pattern, it made a certain kind of
sense to the boy. It was just that he couldn’t grasp what it meant. He
followed the movement of the birds, trying to read something into
it. Maybe these desert birds could explain to him the meaning of
love without ownership.
He felt sleepy. In his heart, he wanted to remain awake, but he
also wanted to sleep. “I am learning the Language of the World, and
everything in the world is beginning to make sense to me…even the
flight of the hawks,” he said to himself. And, in that mood, he was
grateful to be in love. When you are in love, things make even more
sense, he thought.
Suddenly, one of the hawks made a flashing dive through the
sky, attacking the other. As it did so, a sudden, fleeting image came
to the boy: an army, with its swords at the ready, riding into the
oasis. The vision vanished immediately, but it had shaken him. He
had heard people speak of mirages, and had already seen some
himself: they were desires that, because of their intensity,
materialized over the sands of the desert. But he certainly didn’t
desire that an army invade the oasis.
He wanted to forget about the vision, and return to his
meditation. He tried again to concentrate on the pink shades of the
desert, and its stones. But there was something there in his heart
that wouldn’t allow him to do so.
“Always heed the omens,” the old king had said. The boy recalled
what he had seen in the vision, and sensed that it was actually going
to occur.
He rose, and made his way back toward the palm trees. Once
again, he perceived the many languages in the things about him: this
time, the desert was safe, and it was the oasis that had become
dangerous.
The camel driver was seated at the base of a palm tree,
observing the sunset. He saw the boy appear from the other side of
the dunes.
“An army is coming,” the boy said. “I had a vision.”
“The desert fills men’s hearts with visions,” the camel driver
answered.
But the boy told him about the hawks: that he had been
watching their flight and had suddenly felt himself to have plunged
to the Soul of the World.
The camel driver understood what the boy was saying. He knew
that any given thing on the face of the earth could reveal the history
of all things. One could open a book to any page, or look at a
person’s hand; one could turn a card, or watch the flight of the
birds…whatever the thing observed, one could find a connection
with his experience of the moment. Actually, it wasn’t that those
things, in themselves, revealed anything at all; it was just that
people, looking at what was occurring around them, could find a
means of penetration to the Soul of the World.
The desert was full of men who earned their living based on the
ease with which they could penetrate to the Soul of the World. They
were known as seers, and they were held in fear by women and the
elderly. Tribesmen were also wary of consulting them, because it
would be impossible to be effective in battle if one knew that he was
fated to die. The tribesmen preferred the taste of battle, and the
thrill of not knowing what the outcome would be; the future was
already written by Allah, and what he had written was always for
the good of man. So the tribesmen lived only for the present,
because the present was full of surprises, and they had to be aware
of many things: Where was the enemy’s sword? Where was his
horse? What kind of blow should one deliver next in order to
remain alive? The camel driver was not a fighter, and he had
consulted with seers. Many of them had been right about what they
said, while some had been wrong. Then, one day, the oldest seer he
had ever sought out (and the one most to be feared) had asked why
the camel driver was so interested in the future.
“Well…so I can do things,” he had responded. “And so I can
change those things that I don’t want to happen.”
“But then they wouldn’t be a part of your future,” the seer had
said.
“Well, maybe I just want to know the future so I can prepare
myself for what’s coming.”
“If good things are coming, they will be a pleasant surprise,” said
the seer. “If bad things are, and you know in advance, you will suffer
greatly before they even occur.”
“I want to know about the future because I’m a man,” the camel
driver had said to the seer. “And men always live their lives based
on the future.”
The seer was a specialist in the casting of twigs; he threw them
on the ground, and made interpretations based on how they fell.
That day, he didn’t make a cast. He wrapped the twigs in a piece of
cloth and put them back in his bag.
“I make my living forecasting the future for people,” he said. “I
know the science of the twigs, and I know how to use them to
penetrate to the place where all is written. There, I can read the
past, discover what has already been forgotten, and understand the
omens that are here in the present.
“When people consult me, it’s not that I’m reading the future; I
am guessing at the future. The future belongs to God, and it is only
he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. How do I
guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is
here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can
improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes
later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day
according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children.
Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.”
The camel driver had asked what the circumstances were under
which God would allow him to see the future.
“Only when he, himself, reveals it. And God only rarely reveals
the future. When he does so, it is for only one reason: it’s a future
that was written so as to be altered.”
God had shown the boy a part of the future, the camel driver
thought. Why was it that he wanted the boy to serve as his
instrument?
“Go and speak to the tribal chieftains,” said the camel driver.
“Tell them about the armies that are approaching.”
“They’ll laugh at me.”
“They are men of the desert, and the men of the desert are used
to dealing with omens.”
“Well, then, they probably already know.”
“They’re not concerned with that right now. They believe that if
they have to know about something Allah wants them to know,
someone will tell them about it. It has happened many times before.
But, this time, the person is you.”
The boy thought of Fatima. And he decided he would go to see
the chiefs of the tribes.
THE BOY APPROACHED THE GUARD AT THE FRONT OF THE huge white tent at
the center of the oasis.
“I want to see the chieftains. I’ve brought omens from the
desert.”
Without responding, the guard entered the tent, where he
remained for some time. When he emerged, it was with a young
Arab, dressed in white and gold. The boy told the younger man what
he had seen, and the man asked him to wait there. He disappeared
into the tent.
Night fell, and an assortment of fighting men and merchants
entered and exited the tent. One by one, the campfires were
extinguished, and the oasis fell as quiet as the desert. Only the lights
in the great tent remained. During all this time, the boy thought
about Fatima, and he was still unable to understand his last
conversation with her.
Finally, after hours of waiting, the guard bade the boy enter. The
boy was astonished by what he saw inside. Never could he have
imagined that, there in the middle of the desert, there existed a tent
like this one. The ground was covered with the most beautiful
carpets he had ever walked upon, and from the top of the structure
hung lamps of handwrought gold, each with a lighted candle. The
tribal chieftains were seated at the back of the tent in a semicircle,
resting upon richly embroidered silk cushions. Servants came and
went with silver trays laden with spices and tea. Other servants
maintained the fires in the hookahs. The atmosphere was suffused
with the sweet scent of smoke.
There were eight chieftains, but the boy could see immediately
which of them was the most important: an Arab dressed in white
and gold, seated at the center of the semicircle. At his side was the
young Arab the boy had spoken with earlier.
“Who is this stranger who speaks of omens?” asked one of the
chieftains, eyeing the boy.
“It is I,” the boy answered. And he told what he had seen.
“Why would the desert reveal such things to a stranger, when it
knows that we have been here for generations?” said another of the
chieftains.
“Because my eyes are not yet accustomed to the desert,” the boy
said. “I can see things that eyes habituated to the desert might not
see.”
And also because I know about the Soul of the World, he thought
to himself.
“The oasis is neutral ground. No one attacks an oasis,” said a
third chieftain.
“I can only tell you what I saw. If you don’t want to believe me,
you don’t have to do anything about it.”
The men fell into an animated discussion. They spoke in an
Arabic dialect that the boy didn’t understand, but, when he made to
leave, the guard told him to stay. The boy became fearful; the omens
told him that something was wrong. He regretted having spoken to
the camel driver about what he had seen in the desert.
Suddenly, the elder at the center smiled almost imperceptibly,
and the boy felt better. The man hadn’t participated in the
discussion, and, in fact, hadn’t said a word up to that point. But the
boy was already used to the Language of the World, and he could
feel the vibrations of peace throughout the tent. Now his intuition
was that he had been right in coming.
The discussion ended. The chieftains were silent for a few
moments as they listened to what the old man was saying. Then he
turned to the boy: this time his expression was cold and distant.
“Two thousand years ago, in a distant land, a man who believed
in dreams was thrown into a dungeon and then sold as a slave,” the
old man said, now in the dialect the boy understood. “Our
merchants bought that man, and brought him to Egypt. All of us
know that whoever believes in dreams also knows how to interpret
them.”
The elder continued, “When the pharaoh dreamed of cows that
were thin and cows that were fat, this man I’m speaking of rescued
Egypt from famine. His name was Joseph. He, too, was a stranger in
a strange land, like you, and he was probably about your age.”
He paused, and his eyes were still unfriendly.
“We always observe the Tradition. The Tradition saved Egypt
from famine in those days, and made the Egyptians the wealthiest of
peoples. The Tradition teaches men how to cross the desert, and
how their children should marry. The Tradition says that an oasis is
neutral territory, because both sides have oases, and so both are
vulnerable.”
No one said a word as the old man continued.
“But the Tradition also says that we should believe the messages
of the desert. Everything we know was taught to us by the desert.”
The old man gave a signal, and everyone stood. The meeting was
over. The hookahs were extinguished, and the guards stood at
attention. The boy made ready to leave, but the old man spoke
again:
“Tomorrow, we are going to break the agreement that says that
no one at the oasis may carry arms. Throughout the entire day we
will be on the lookout for our enemies. When the sun sets, the men
will once again surrender their arms to me. For every ten dead men
among our enemies, you will receive a piece of gold.
“But arms cannot be drawn unless they also go into battle. Arms
are as capricious as the desert, and, if they are not used, the next
time they might not function. If at least one of them hasn’t been
used by the end of the day tomorrow, one will be used on you.”
When the boy left the tent, the oasis was illuminated only by the
light of the full moon. He was twenty minutes from his tent, and
began to make his way there.
He was alarmed by what had happened. He had succeeded in
reaching through to the Soul of the World, and now the price for
having done so might be his life. It was a frightening bet. But he had
been making risky bets ever since the day he had sold his sheep to
pursue his Personal Legend. And, as the camel driver had said, to
die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day
was there to be lived or to mark one’s departure from this world.
Everything depended on one word: “Maktub.”
Walking along in the silence, he had no regrets. If he died
tomorrow, it would be because God was not willing to change the
future. He would at least have died after having crossed the strait,
after having worked in a crystal shop, and after having known the
silence of the desert and Fatima’s eyes. He had lived every one of his
days intensely since he had left home so long ago. If he died
tomorrow, he would already have seen more than other shepherds,
and he was proud of that.
Suddenly he heard a thundering sound, and he was thrown to
the ground by a wind such as he had never known. The area was
swirling in dust so intense that it hid the moon from view. Before
him was an enormous white horse, rearing over him with a
frightening scream.
When the blinding dust had settled a bit, the boy trembled at
what he saw. Astride the animal was a horseman dressed
completely in black, with a falcon perched on his left shoulder. He
wore a turban and his entire face, except for his eyes, was covered
with a black kerchief. He appeared to be a messenger from the
desert, but his presence was much more powerful than that of a
mere messenger.
The strange horseman drew an enormous, curved sword from a
scabbard mounted on his saddle. The steel of its blade glittered in
the light of the moon.
“Who dares to read the meaning of the flight of the hawks?” he
demanded, so loudly that his words seemed to echo through the
fifty thousand palm trees of Al-Fayoum.
“It is I who dared to do so,” said the boy. He was reminded of the
image of Santiago Matamoros, mounted on his white horse, with the
infidels beneath his hooves. This man looked exactly the same,
except that now the roles were reversed.
“It is I who dared to do so,” he repeated, and he lowered his head
to receive a blow from the sword. “Many lives will be saved, because
I was able to see through to the Soul of the World.”
The sword didn’t fall. Instead, the stranger lowered it slowly,
until the point touched the boy’s forehead. It drew a droplet of
blood.
The horseman was completely immobile, as was the boy. It
didn’t even occur to the boy to flee. In his heart, he felt a strange
sense of joy: he was about to die in pursuit of his Personal Legend.
And for Fatima. The omens had been true, after all. Here he was,
face-to-face with his enemy, but there was no need to be concerned
about dying—the Soul of the World awaited him, and he would soon
be a part of it. And, tomorrow, his enemy would also be a part of
that Soul.
The stranger continued to hold the sword at the boy’s forehead.
“Why did you read the flight of the birds?”
“I read only what the birds wanted to tell me. They wanted to
save the oasis. Tomorrow all of you will die, because there are more
men at the oasis than you have.”
The sword remained where it was. “Who are you to change what
Allah has willed?”
“Allah created the armies, and he also created the hawks. Allah
taught me the language of the birds. Everything has been written by
the same hand,” the boy said, remembering the camel driver’s
words.
The stranger withdrew the sword from the boy’s forehead, and
the boy felt immensely relieved. But he still couldn’t flee.
“Be careful with your prognostications,” said the stranger.
“When something is written, there is no way to change it.”
“All I saw was an army,” said the boy. “I didn’t see the outcome
of the battle.”
The stranger seemed satisfied with the answer. But he kept the
sword in his hand. “What is a stranger doing in a strange land?”
“I am following my Personal Legend. It’s not something you
would understand.”
The stranger placed his sword in its scabbard, and the boy
relaxed.
“I had to test your courage,” the stranger said. “Courage is the
quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World.”
The boy was surprised. The stranger was speaking of things that
very few people knew about.
“You must not let up, even after having come so far,” he
continued. “You must love the desert, but never trust it completely.
Because the desert tests all men: it challenges every step, and kills
those who become distracted.”
What he said reminded the boy of the old king.
“If the warriors come here, and your head is still on your
shoulders at sunset, come and find me,” said the stranger.
The same hand that had brandished the sword now held a whip.
The horse reared again, raising a cloud of dust.
“Where do you live?” shouted the boy, as the horseman rode
away.
The hand with the whip pointed to the south.
The boy had met the alchemist.
NEXT MORNING, THERE WERE TWO THOUSAND ARMED men scattered
throughout the palm trees at Al-Fayoum. Before the sun had
reached its high point, five hundred tribesmen appeared on the
horizon. The mounted troops entered the oasis from the north; it
appeared to be a peaceful expedition, but they all carried arms
hidden in their robes. When they reached the white tent at the
center of Al-Fayoum, they withdrew their scimitars and rifles. And
they attacked an empty tent.
The men of the oasis surrounded the horsemen from the desert
and within half an hour all but one of the intruders were dead. The
children had been kept at the other side of a grove of palm trees,
and saw nothing of what had happened. The women had remained
in their tents, praying for the safekeeping of their husbands, and
saw nothing of the battle, either. Were it not for the bodies there on
the ground, it would have appeared to be a normal day at the oasis.
The only tribesman spared was the commander of the battalion.
That afternoon, he was brought before the tribal chieftains, who
asked him why he had violated the Tradition. The commander said
that his men had been starving and thirsty, exhausted from many
days of battle, and had decided to take the oasis so as to be able to
return to the war.
The tribal chieftain said that he felt sorry for the tribesmen, but
that the Tradition was sacred. He condemned the commander to
death without honor. Rather than being killed by a blade or a bullet,
he was hanged from a dead palm tree, where his body twisted in the
desert wind.
The tribal chieftain called for the boy, and presented him with
fifty pieces of gold. He repeated his story about Joseph of Egypt, and
asked the boy to become the counselor of the oasis.
WHEN THE SUN HAD SET, AND THE FIRST STARS MADE their appearance, the
boy started to walk to the south. He eventually sighted a single tent,
and a group of Arabs passing by told the boy that it was a place
inhabited by genies. But the boy sat down and waited.
Not until the moon was high did the alchemist ride into view. He
carried two dead hawks over his shoulder.
“I am here,” the boy said.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the alchemist answered. “Or is it your
Personal Legend that brings you here?”
“With the wars between the tribes, it’s impossible to cross the
desert. So I have come here.”
The alchemist dismounted from his horse, and signaled that the
boy should enter the tent with him. It was a tent like many at the
oasis. The boy looked around for the ovens and other apparatus
used in alchemy, but saw none. There were only some books in a
pile, a small cooking stove, and the carpets, covered with
mysterious designs.
“Sit down. We’ll have something to drink and eat these hawks,”
said the alchemist.
The boy suspected that they were the same hawks he had seen
on the day before, but he said nothing. The alchemist lighted the
fire, and soon a delicious aroma filled the tent. It was better than the
scent of the hookahs.
“Why did you want to see me?” the boy asked.
“Because of the omens,” the alchemist answered. “The wind told
me you would be coming, and that you would need help.”
“It’s not I the wind spoke about. It’s the other foreigner, the
Englishman. He’s the one that’s looking for you.”
“He has other things to do first. But he’s on the right track. He
has begun to try to understand the desert.”
“And what about me?”
“When a person really desires something, all the universe
conspires to help that person to realize his dream,” said the
alchemist, echoing the words of the old king. The boy understood.
Another person was there to help him toward his Personal Legend.
“So you are going to instruct me?”
“No. You already know all you need to know. I am only going to
point you in the direction of your treasure.”
“But there’s a tribal war,” the boy reiterated.
“I know what’s happening in the desert.”
“I have already found my treasure. I have a camel, I have my
money from the crystal shop, and I have fifty gold pieces. In my own
country, I would be a rich man.”
“But none of that is from the Pyramids,” said the alchemist.
“I also have Fatima. She is a treasure greater than anything else I
have won.”
“She wasn’t found at the Pyramids, either.”
They ate in silence. The alchemist opened a bottle and poured a
red liquid into the boy’s cup. It was the most delicious wine he had
ever tasted.
“Isn’t wine prohibited here?” the boy asked
“It’s not what enters men’s mouths that’s evil,” said the
alchemist. “It’s what comes out of their mouths that is.”
The alchemist was a bit daunting, but, as the boy drank the wine,
he relaxed. After they finished eating they sat outside the tent,
under a moon so brilliant that it made the stars pale.
“Drink and enjoy yourself,” said the alchemist, noticing that the
boy was feeling happier. “Rest well tonight, as if you were a warrior
preparing for combat. Remember that wherever your heart is, there
you will find your treasure. You’ve got to find the treasure, so that
everything you have learned along the way can make sense.
“Tomorrow, sell your camel and buy a horse. Camels are
traitorous: they walk thousands of paces and never seem to tire.
Then suddenly, they kneel and die. But horses tire bit by bit. You
always know how much you can ask of them, and when it is that
they are about to die.”
THE FOLLOWING NIGHT, THE BOY APPEARED AT THE alchemist’s tent with a
horse. The alchemist was ready, and he mounted his own steed and
placed the falcon on his left shoulder. He said to the boy, “Show me
where there is life out in the desert. Only those who can see such
signs of life are able to find treasure.”
They began to ride out over the sands, with the moon lighting
their way. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find life in the desert, the boy
thought. I don’t know the desert that well yet.
He wanted to say so to the alchemist, but he was afraid of the
man. They reached the rocky place where the boy had seen the
hawks in the sky, but now there was only silence and the wind.
“I don’t know how to find life in the desert,” the boy said. “I
know that there is life here, but I don’t know where to look.”
“Life attracts life,” the alchemist answered.
And then the boy understood. He loosened the reins on his
horse, who galloped forward over the rocks and sand. The alchemist
followed as the boy’s horse ran for almost half an hour. They could
no longer see the palms of the oasis—only the gigantic moon above
them, and its silver reflections from the stones of the desert.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the boy’s horse began to slow.
“There’s life here,” the boy said to the alchemist. “I don’t know
the language of the desert, but my horse knows the language of life.”
They dismounted, and the alchemist said nothing. Advancing
slowly, they searched among the stones. The alchemist stopped
abruptly, and bent to the ground. There was a hole there among the
stones. The alchemist put his hand into the hole, and then his entire
arm, up to his shoulder. Something was moving there, and the
alchemist’s eyes—the boy could see only his eyes—squinted with
his effort. His arm seemed to be battling with whatever was in the
hole. Then, with a motion that startled the boy, he withdrew his arm
and leaped to his feet. In his hand, he grasped a snake by the tail.
The boy leapt as well, but away from the alchemist. The snake
fought frantically, making hissing sounds that shattered the silence
of the desert. It was a cobra, whose venom could kill a person in
minutes.
“Watch out for his venom,” the boy said. But even though the
alchemist had put his hand in the hole, and had surely already been
bitten, his expression was calm. “The alchemist is two hundred
years old,” the Englishman had told him. He must know how to deal
with the snakes of the desert.
The boy watched as his companion went to his horse and
withdrew a scimitar. With its blade, he drew a circle in the sand, and
then he placed the snake within it. The serpent relaxed immediately.
“Not to worry,” said the alchemist. “He won’t leave the circle.
You found life in the desert, the omen that I needed.”
“Why was that so important?”
“Because the Pyramids are surrounded by the desert.”
The boy didn’t want to talk about the Pyramids. His heart was
heavy, and he had been melancholy since the previous night. To
continue his search for the treasure meant that he had to abandon
Fatima.
“I’m going to guide you across the desert,” the alchemist said.
“I want to stay at the oasis,” the boy answered. “I’ve found
Fatima, and, as far as I’m concerned, she’s worth more than
treasure.”
“Fatima is a woman of the desert,” said the alchemist. “She
knows that men have to go away in order to return. And she already
has her treasure: it’s you. Now she expects that you will find what it
is you’re looking for.”
“Well, what if I decide to stay?”
“Let me tell you what will happen. You’ll be the counselor of the
oasis. You have enough gold to buy many sheep and many camels.
You’ll marry Fatima, and you’ll both be happy for a year. You’ll learn
to love the desert, and you’ll get to know every one of the fifty
thousand palms. You’ll watch them as they grow, demonstrating
how the world is always changing. And you’ll get better and better
at understanding omens, because the desert is the best teacher
there is.
“Sometime during the second year, you’ll remember about the
treasure. The omens will begin insistently to speak of it, and you’ll
try to ignore them. You’ll use your knowledge for the welfare of the
oasis and its inhabitants. The tribal chieftains will appreciate what
you do. And your camels will bring you wealth and power.
“During the third year, the omens will continue to speak of your
treasure and your Personal Legend. You’ll walk around, night after
night, at the oasis, and Fatima will be unhappy because she’ll feel it
was she who interrupted your quest. But you will love her, and
she’ll return your love. You’ll remember that she never asked you to
stay, because a woman of the desert knows that she must await her
man. So you won’t blame her. But many times you’ll walk the sands
of the desert, thinking that maybe you could have left…that you
could have trusted more in your love for Fatima. Because what kept
you at the oasis was your own fear that you might never come back.
At that point, the omens will tell you that your treasure is buried
forever.
“Then, sometime during the fourth year, the omens will abandon
you, because you’ve stopped listening to them. The tribal chieftains
will see that, and you’ll be dismissed from your position as
counselor. But, by then, you’ll be a rich merchant, with many camels
and a great deal of merchandise. You’ll spend the rest of your days
knowing that you didn’t pursue your Personal Legend, and that now
it’s too late.
“You must understand that love never keeps a man from
pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s
because it wasn’t true love…the love that speaks the Language of
the World.”
The alchemist erased the circle in the sand, and the snake
slithered away among the rocks. The boy remembered the crystal
merchant who had always wanted to go to Mecca, and the
Englishman in search of the alchemist. He thought of the woman
who had trusted in the desert. And he looked out over the desert
that had brought him to the woman he loved.
They mounted their horses, and this time it was the boy who
followed the alchemist back to the oasis. The wind brought the
sounds of the oasis to them, and the boy tried to hear Fatima’s voice.
But that night, as he had watched the cobra within the circle, the
strange horseman with the falcon on his shoulder had spoken of
love and treasure, of the women of the desert and of his Personal
Legend.
“I’m going with you,” the boy said. And he immediately felt peace
in his heart.
“We’ll leave tomorrow before sunrise,” was the alchemist’s only
response.
THE BOY SPENT A SLEEPLESS NIGHT. TWO HOURS BEFORE dawn, he awoke
one of the boys who slept in his tent, and asked him to show him
where Fatima lived. They went to her tent, and the boy gave his
friend enough gold to buy a sheep.
Then he asked his friend to go into the tent where Fatima was
sleeping, and to awaken her and tell her that he was waiting outside.
The young Arab did as he was asked, and was given enough gold to
buy yet another sheep.
“Now leave us alone,” said the boy to the young Arab. The Arab
returned to his tent to sleep, proud to have helped the counselor of
the oasis, and happy at having enough money to buy himself some
sheep.
Fatima appeared at the entrance to the tent. The two walked out
among the palms. The boy knew that it was a violation of the
Tradition, but that didn’t matter to him now.
“I’m going away,” he said. “And I want you to know that I’m
coming back. I love you because…”
“Don’t say anything,” Fatima interrupted. “One is loved because
one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
But the boy continued, “I had a dream, and I met with a king. I
sold crystal and crossed the desert. And, because the tribes declared
war, I went to the well, seeking the alchemist. So, I love you because
the entire universe conspired to help me find you.”
The two embraced. It was the first time either had touched the
other.
“I’ll be back,” the boy said.
“Before this, I always looked to the desert with longing,” said
Fatima. “Now it will be with hope. My father went away one day, but
he returned to my mother, and he has always come back since
then.”
They said nothing else. They walked a bit farther among the
palms, and then the boy left her at the entrance to her tent.
“I’ll return, just as your father came back to your mother,” he
said.
He saw that Fatima’s eyes were filled with tears.
“You’re crying?”
“I’m a woman of the desert,” she said, averting her face. “But
above all, I’m a woman.”
Fatima went back to her tent, and, when daylight came, she went
out to do the chores she had done for years. But everything had
changed. The boy was no longer at the oasis, and the oasis would
never again have the same meaning it had had only yesterday. It
would no longer be a place with fifty thousand palm trees and three
hundred wells, where the pilgrims arrived, relieved at the end of
their long journeys. From that day on, the oasis would be an empty
place for her.
From that day on, it was the desert that would be important. She
would look to it every day, and would try to guess which star the
boy was following in search of his treasure. She would have to send
her kisses on the wind, hoping that the wind would touch the boy’s
face, and would tell him that she was alive. That she was waiting for
him, a woman awaiting a courageous man in search of his treasure.
From that day on, the desert would represent only one thing to her:
the hope for his return.
“DON’T THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE LEFT BEHIND,” THE alchemist said to
the boy as they began to ride across the sands of the desert.
“Everything is written in the Soul of the World, and there it will stay
forever.”
“Men dream more about coming home than about leaving,” the
boy said. He was already reaccustomed to the desert’s silence.
“If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And
one can always come back. If what you had found was only a
moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing
on your return.”
The man was speaking the language of alchemy. But the boy
knew that he was referring to Fatima.
It was difficult not to think about what he had left behind. The
desert, with its endless monotony, put him to dreaming. The boy
could still see the palm trees, the wells, and the face of the woman
he loved. He could see the Englishman at his experiments, and the
camel driver who was a teacher without realizing it. Maybe the
alchemist has never been in love, the boy thought.
The alchemist rode in front, with the falcon on his shoulder. The
bird knew the language of the desert well, and whenever they
stopped, he flew off in search of game. On the first day he returned
with a rabbit, and on the second with two birds.
At night, they spread their sleeping gear and kept their fires
hidden. The desert nights were cold, and were becoming darker and
darker as the phases of the moon passed. They went on for a week,
speaking only of the precautions they needed to follow in order to
avoid the battles between the tribes. The war continued, and at
times the wind carried the sweet, sickly smell of blood. Battles had
been fought nearby, and the wind reminded the boy that there was
the language of omens, always ready to show him what his eyes had
failed to observe.
On the seventh day, the alchemist decided to make camp earlier
than usual. The falcon flew off to find game, and the alchemist
offered his water container to the boy.
“You are almost at the end of your journey,” said the alchemist.
“I congratulate you for having pursued your Personal Legend.”
“And you’ve told me nothing along the way,” said the boy. “I
thought you were going to teach me some of the things you know. A
while ago, I rode through the desert with a man who had books on
alchemy. But I wasn’t able to learn anything from them.”
“There is only one way to learn,” the alchemist answered. “It’s
through action. Everything you need to know you have learned
through your journey. You need to learn only one thing more.”
The boy wanted to know what that was, but the alchemist was
searching the horizon, looking for the falcon.
“Why are you called the alchemist?”
“Because that’s what I am.”
“And what went wrong when other alchemists tried to make
gold and were unable to do so?”
“They were looking only for gold,” his companion answered.
“They were seeking the treasure of their Personal Legend, without
wanting actually to live out the Personal Legend.”
“What is it that I still need to know?” the boy asked.
But the alchemist continued to look to the horizon. And finally
the falcon returned with their meal. They dug a hole and lit their fire
in it, so that the light of the flames would not be seen.
“I’m an alchemist simply because I’m an alchemist,” he said, as
he prepared the meal. “I learned the science from my grandfather,
who learned from his father, and so on, back to the creation of the
world. In those times, the Master Work could be written simply on
an emerald. But men began to reject simple things, and to write
tracts, interpretations, and philosophical studies. They also began to
feel that they knew a better way than others had. Yet the Emerald
Tablet is still alive today.”
“What was written on the Emerald Tablet?” the boy wanted to
know.
The alchemist began to draw in the sand, and completed his
drawing in less than five minutes. As he drew, the boy thought of
the old king, and the plaza where they had met that day; it seemed
as if it had taken place years and years ago.
“This is what was written on the Emerald Tablet,” said the
alchemist, when he had finished.
The boy tried to read what was written in the sand.
“It’s a code,” said the boy, a bit disappointed. “It looks like what I
saw in the Englishman’s books.”
“No,” the alchemist answered. “It’s like the flight of those two
hawks; it can’t be understood by reason alone. The Emerald Tablet
is a direct passage to the Soul of the World.
“The wise men understood that this natural world is only an
image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a
guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the
world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his
spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom. That’s what I
mean by action.”
“Should I understand the Emerald Tablet?” the boy asked.
“Perhaps, if you were in a laboratory of alchemy, this would be
the right time to study the best way to understand the Emerald
Tablet. But you are in the desert. So immerse yourself in it. The
desert will give you an understanding of the world; in fact, anything
on the face of the earth will do that. You don’t even have to
understand the desert: all you have to do is contemplate a simple
grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation.”
“How do I immerse myself in the desert?”
“Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from
the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there.”
THEY CROSSED THE DESERT FOR ANOTHER TWO DAYS IN silence. The
alchemist had become much more cautious, because they were
approaching the area where the most violent battles were being
waged. As they moved along, the boy tried to listen to his heart.
It was not easy to do; in earlier times, his heart had always been
ready to tell its story, but lately that wasn’t true. There had been
times when his heart spent hours telling of its sadness, and at other
times it became so emotional over the desert sunrise that the boy
had to hide his tears. His heart beat fastest when it spoke to the boy
of treasure, and more slowly when the boy stared entranced at the
endless horizons of the desert. But his heart was never quiet, even
when the boy and the alchemist had fallen into silence.
“Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked, when
they had made camp that day.
“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your
treasure.”
“But my heart is agitated,” the boy said. “It has its dreams, it gets
emotional, and it’s become passionate over a woman of the desert.
It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights,
when I’m thinking about her.”
“Well, that’s good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it
has to say.”
During the next three days, the two travelers passed by a
number of armed tribesmen, and saw others on the horizon. The
boy’s heart began to speak of fear. It told him stories it had heard
from the Soul of the World, stories of men who sought to find their
treasure and never succeeded. Sometimes it frightened the boy with
the idea that he might not find his treasure, or that he might die
there in the desert. At other times, it told the boy that it was
satisfied: it had found love and riches.
“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they
had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.”
“That makes sense,” the alchemist answered. “Naturally it’s
afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything
you’ve won.”
“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”
“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if
you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be
there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life
and about the world.”
“You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?”
“Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your
heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll
know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.
“You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better
to listen to what it has to say. That way, you’ll never have to fear an
unanticipated blow.”
The boy continued to listen to his heart as they crossed the
desert. He came to understand its dodges and tricks, and to accept it
as it was. He lost his fear, and forgot about his need to go back to the
oasis, because, one afternoon, his heart told him that it was happy.
“Even though I complain sometimes,” it said, “it’s because I’m the
heart of a person, and people’s hearts are that way. People are
afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel
that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve
them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones
who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but
weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were
forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we
suffer terribly.”
“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the
alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the
suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in
search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a
second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”
“Every second of the search is an encounter with God,” the boy
told his heart. “When I have been truly searching for my treasure,
every day has been luminous, because I’ve known that every hour
was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly
searching for my treasure, I’ve discovered things along the way that
I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that
seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve.”
So his heart was quiet for an entire afternoon. That night, the
boy slept deeply, and, when he awoke, his heart began to tell him
things that came from the Soul of the World. It said that all people
who are happy have God within them. And that happiness could be
found in a grain of sand from the desert, as the alchemist had said.
Because a grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe
has taken millions of years to create it. “Everyone on earth has a
treasure that awaits him,” his heart said. “We, people’s hearts,
seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer
want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children.
Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its
own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for
them—the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most
people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do,
the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.
“So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop
speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard:
we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their
hearts.”
“Why don’t people’s hearts tell them to continue to follow their
dreams?” the boy asked the alchemist.
“Because that’s what makes a heart suffer most, and hearts don’t
like to suffer.”
From then on, the boy understood his heart. He asked it, please,
never to stop speaking to him. He asked that, when he wandered far
from his dreams, his heart press him and sound the alarm. The boy
swore that, every time he heard the alarm, he would heed its
message.
That night, he told all of this to the alchemist. And the alchemist
understood that the boy’s heart had returned to the Soul of the
World.
“So what should I do now?” the boy asked.
“Continue in the direction of the Pyramids,” said the alchemist.
“And continue to pay heed to the omens. Your heart is still capable
of showing you where the treasure is.”
“Is that the one thing I still needed to know?”
“No,” the alchemist answered. “What you still need to know is
this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests
everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because
it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams,
master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that
dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point
at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst
just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’
“Every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search
ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”
The boy remembered an old proverb from his country. It said
that the darkest hour of the night came just before the dawn.
ON THE FOLLOWING DAY, THE FIRST CLEAR SIGN OF danger appeared.
Three armed tribesmen approached, and asked what the boy and
the alchemist were doing there.
“I’m hunting with my falcon,” the alchemist answered.
“We’re going to have to search you to see whether you’re
armed,” one of the tribesmen said.
The alchemist dismounted slowly, and the boy did the same.
“Why are you carrying money?” asked the tribesman, when he
had searched the boy’s bag.
“I need it to get to the Pyramids,” he said.
The tribesman who was searching the alchemist’s belongings
found a small crystal flask filled with a liquid, and a yellow glass egg
that was slightly larger than a chicken’s egg.
“What are these things?” he asked.
“That’s the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life. It’s the
Master Work of the alchemists. Whoever swallows that elixir will
never be sick again, and a fragment from that stone turns any metal
into gold.”
The Arabs laughed at him, and the alchemist laughed along. They
thought his answer was amusing, and they allowed the boy and the
alchemist to proceed with all of their belongings.
“Are you crazy?” the boy asked the alchemist, when they had
moved on. “What did you do that for?”
“To show you one of life’s simple lessons,” the alchemist
answered. “When you possess great treasures within you, and try to
tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”
They continued across the desert. With every day that passed,
the boy’s heart became more and more silent. It no longer wanted to
know about things of the past or future; it was content simply to
contemplate the desert, and to drink with the boy from the Soul of
the World. The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither
was capable now of betraying the other.
When his heart spoke to him, it was to provide a stimulus to the
boy, and to give him strength, because the days of silence there in
the desert were wearisome. His heart told the boy what his
strongest qualities were: his courage in having given up his sheep
and in trying to live out his Personal Legend, and his enthusiasm
during the time he had worked at the crystal shop.
And his heart told him something else that the boy had never
noticed: it told the boy of dangers that had threatened him, but that
he had never perceived. His heart said that one time it had hidden
the rifle the boy had taken from his father, because of the possibility
that the boy might wound himself. And it reminded the boy of the
day when he had been ill and vomiting out in the fields, after which
he had fallen into a deep sleep. There had been two thieves farther
ahead who were planning to steal the boy’s sheep and murder him.
But, since the boy hadn’t passed by, they had decided to move on,
thinking that he had changed his route.
“Does a man’s heart always help him?” the boy asked the
alchemist.
“Mostly just the hearts of those who are trying to realize their
Personal Legends. But they do help children, drunkards, and the
elderly, too.”
“Does that mean that I’ll never run into danger?”
“It means only that the heart does what it can,” the alchemist
said.
One afternoon, they passed by the encampment of one of the
tribes. At each corner of the camp were Arabs garbed in beautiful
white robes, with arms at the ready. The men were smoking their
hookahs and trading stories from the battlefield. No one paid any
attention to the two travelers.
“There’s no danger,” the boy said, when they had moved on past
the encampment.
The alchemist sounded angry: “Trust in your heart, but never
forget that you’re in the desert. When men are at war with one
another, the Soul of the World can hear the screams of battle. No
one fails to suffer the consequences of everything under the sun.”
All things are one, the boy thought. And then, as if the desert
wanted to demonstrate that the alchemist was right, two horsemen
appeared from behind the travelers.
“You can’t go any farther,” one of them said. “You’re in the area
where the tribes are at war.”
“I’m not going very far,” the alchemist answered, looking
straight into the eyes of the horsemen. They were silent for a
moment, and then agreed that the boy and the alchemist could
move along.
The boy watched the exchange with fascination. “You dominated
those horsemen with the way you looked at them,” he said.
“Your eyes show the strength of your soul,” answered the
alchemist.
That’s true, the boy thought. He had noticed that, in the midst of
the multitude of armed men back at the encampment, there had
been one who stared fixedly at the two. He had been so far away
that his face wasn’t even visible. But the boy was certain that he had
been looking at them.
Finally, when they had crossed the mountain range that
extended along the entire horizon, the alchemist said that they were
only two days from the Pyramids.
“If we’re going to go our separate ways soon,” the boy said, “then
teach me about alchemy.”
“You already know about alchemy. It is about penetrating to the
Soul of the World, and discovering the treasure that has been
reserved for you.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about transforming lead
into gold.”
The alchemist fell as silent as the desert, and answered the boy
only after they had stopped to eat.
“Everything in the universe evolved,” he said. “And, for wise
men, gold is the metal that evolved the furthest. Don’t ask me why; I
don’t know why. I just know that the Tradition is always right.
“Men have never understood the words of the wise. So gold,
instead of being seen as a symbol of evolution, became the basis for
conflict.”
“There are many languages spoken by things,” the boy said.
“There was a time when, for me, a camel’s whinnying was nothing
more than whinnying. Then it became a signal of danger. And,
finally, it became just a whinny again.”
But then he stopped. The alchemist probably already knew all
that.
“I have known true alchemists,” the alchemist continued. “They
locked themselves in their laboratories, and tried to evolve, as gold
had. And they found the Philosopher’s Stone, because they
understood that when something evolves, everything around that
thing evolves as well.
“Others stumbled upon the stone by accident. They already had
the gift, and their souls were readier for such things than the souls
of others. But they don’t count. They’re quite rare.
“And then there were the others, who were interested only in
gold. They never found the secret. They forgot that lead, copper, and
iron have their own Personal Legends to fulfill. And anyone who
interferes with the Personal Legend of another thing never will
discover his own.”
The alchemist’s words echoed out like a curse. He reached over
and picked up a shell from the ground.
“This desert was once a sea,” he said.
“I noticed that,” the boy answered.
The alchemist told the boy to place the shell over his ear. He had
done that many times when he was a child, and had heard the sound
of the sea.
“The sea has lived on in this shell, because that’s its Personal
Legend. And it will never cease doing so until the desert is once
again covered by water.”
They mounted their horses, and rode out in the direction of the
Pyramids of Egypt.
THE SUN WAS SETTING WHEN THE BOY’S HEART SOUNDED a danger signal.
They were surrounded by gigantic dunes, and the boy looked at the
alchemist to see whether he had sensed anything. But he appeared
to be unaware of any danger. Five minutes later, the boy saw two
horsemen waiting ahead of them. Before he could say anything to
the alchemist, the two horsemen had become ten, and then a
hundred. And then they were everywhere in the dunes.
They were tribesmen dressed in blue, with black rings
surrounding their turbans. Their faces were hidden behind blue
veils, with only their eyes showing.
Even from a distance, their eyes conveyed the strength of their
souls. And their eyes spoke of death.
THE TWO WERE TAKEN TO A NEARBY MILITARY CAMP. A soldier shoved the
boy and the alchemist into a tent where the chief was holding a
meeting with his staff.
“These are the spies,” said one of the men.
“We’re just travelers,” the alchemist answered.
“You were seen at the enemy camp three days ago. And you
were talking with one of the troops there.”
“I’m just a man who wanders the desert and knows the stars,”
said the alchemist. “I have no information about troops or about the
movement of the tribes. I was simply acting as a guide for my friend
here.”
“Who is your friend?” the chief asked.
“An alchemist,” said the alchemist. “He understands the forces of
nature. And he wants to show you his extraordinary powers.”
The boy listened quietly. And fearfully.
“What is a foreigner doing here?” asked another of the men.
“He has brought money to give to your tribe,” said the alchemist,
before the boy could say a word. And seizing the boy’s bag, the
alchemist gave the gold coins to the chief.
The Arab accepted them without a word. There was enough
there to buy a lot of weapons.
“What is an alchemist?” he asked, finally.
“It’s a man who understands nature and the world. If he wanted
to, he could destroy this camp just with the force of the wind.”
The men laughed. They were used to the ravages of war, and
knew that the wind could not deliver them a fatal blow. Yet each felt
his heart beat a bit faster. They were men of the desert, and they
were fearful of sorcerers.
“I want to see him do it,” said the chief.
“He needs three days,” answered the alchemist. “He is going to
transform himself into the wind, just to demonstrate his powers. If
he can’t do so, we humbly offer you our lives, for the honor of your
tribe.”
“You can’t offer me something that is already mine,” the chief
said, arrogantly. But he granted the travelers three days.
The boy was shaking with fear, but the alchemist helped him out
of the tent.
“Don’t let them see that you’re afraid,” the alchemist said. “They
are brave men, and they despise cowards.”
But the boy couldn’t even speak. He was able to do so only after
they had walked through the center of the camp. There was no need
to imprison them: the Arabs simply confiscated their horses. So,
once again, the world had demonstrated its many languages: the
desert only moments ago had been endless and free, and now it was
an impenetrable wall.
“You gave them everything I had!” the boy said. “Everything I’ve
saved in my entire life!”
“Well, what good would it be to you if you had to die?” the
alchemist answered. “Your money saved us for three days. It’s not
often that money saves a person’s life.”
But the boy was too frightened to listen to words of wisdom. He
had no idea how he was going to transform himself into the wind.
He wasn’t an alchemist!
The alchemist asked one of the soldiers for some tea, and poured
some on the boy’s wrists. A wave of relief washed over him, and the
alchemist muttered some words that the boy didn’t understand.
“Don’t give in to your fears,” said the alchemist, in a strangely
gentle voice. “If you do, you won’t be able to talk to your heart.”
“But I have no idea how to turn myself into the wind.”
“If a person is living out his Personal Legend, he knows
everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a
dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
“I’m not afraid of failing. It’s just that I don’t know how to turn
myself into the wind.”
“Well, you’ll have to learn; your life depends on it.”
“But what if I can’t?”
“Then you’ll die in the midst of trying to realize your Personal
Legend. That’s a lot better than dying like millions of other people,
who never even knew what their Personal Legends were.
“But don’t worry,” the alchemist continued. “Usually the threat
of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives.”
THE FIRST DAY PASSED. THERE WAS A MAJOR BATTLE nearby, and a
number of wounded were brought back to the camp. The dead
soldiers were replaced by others, and life went on. Death doesn’t
change anything, the boy thought.
“You could have died later on,” a soldier said to the body of one
of his companions. “You could have died after peace had been
declared. But, in any case, you were going to die.”
At the end of the day, the boy went looking for the alchemist,
who had taken his falcon out into the desert.
“I still have no idea how to turn myself into the wind,” the boy
repeated.
“Remember what I told you: the world is only the visible aspect
of God. And that what alchemy does is to bring spiritual perfection
into contact with the material plane.”
“What are you doing?”
“Feeding my falcon.”
“If I’m not able to turn myself into the wind, we’re going to die,”
the boy said. “Why feed your falcon?”
“You’re the one who may die,” the alchemist said. “I already
know how to turn myself into the wind.”
ON THE SECOND DAY, THE BOY CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF A cliff near the
camp. The sentinels allowed him to go; they had already heard
about the sorcerer who could turn himself into the wind, and they
didn’t want to go near him. In any case, the desert was impassable.
He spent the entire afternoon of the second day looking out over
the desert, and listening to his heart. The boy knew the desert
sensed his fear.
They both spoke the same language.
ON THE THIRD DAY, THE CHIEF MET WITH HIS OFFICERS. He called the
alchemist to the meeting and said, “Let’s go see the boy who turns
himself into the wind.”
“Let’s,” the alchemist answered.
The boy took them to the cliff where he had been on the
previous day. He told them all to be seated.
“It’s going to take awhile,” the boy said.
“We’re in no hurry,” the chief answered. “We are men of the
desert.”
The boy looked out at the horizon. There were mountains in the
distance. And there were dunes, rocks, and plants that insisted on
living where survival seemed impossible. There was the desert that
he had wandered for so many months; despite all that time, he knew
only a small part of it. Within that small part, he had found an
Englishman, caravans, tribal wars, and an oasis with fifty thousand
palm trees and three hundred wells.
“What do you want here today?” the desert asked him. “Didn’t
you spend enough time looking at me yesterday?”
“Somewhere you are holding the person I love,” the boy said.
“So, when I look out over your sands, I am also looking at her. I want
to return to her, and I need your help so that I can turn myself into
the wind.”
“What is love?” the desert asked.
“Love is the falcon’s flight over your sands. Because for him, you
are a green field, from which he always returns with game. He
knows your rocks, your dunes, and your mountains, and you are
generous to him.”
“The falcon’s beak carries bits of me, myself,” the desert said.
“For years, I care for his game, feeding it with the little water that I
have, and then I show him where the game is. And, one day, as I
enjoy the fact that his game thrives on my surface, the falcon dives
out of the sky, and takes away what I’ve created.”
“But that’s why you created the game in the first place,” the boy
answered. “To nourish the falcon. And the falcon then nourishes
man. And, eventually, man will nourish your sands, where the game
will once again flourish. That’s how the world goes.”
“So is that what love is?”
“Yes, that’s what love is. It’s what makes the game become the
falcon, the falcon become man, and man, in his turn, the desert. It’s
what turns lead into gold, and makes the gold return to the earth.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” the desert said.
“But you can at least understand that somewhere in your sands
there is a woman waiting for me. And that’s why I have to turn
myself into the wind.”
The desert didn’t answer him for a few moments.
Then it told him, “I’ll give you my sands to help the wind to blow,
but, alone, I can’t do anything. You have to ask for help from the
wind.”
A breeze began to blow. The tribesmen watched the boy from a
distance, talking among themselves in a language that the boy
couldn’t understand.
The alchemist smiled.
The wind approached the boy and touched his face. It knew of
the boy’s talk with the desert, because the winds know everything.
They blow across the world without a birthplace, and with no place
to die.
“Help me,” the boy said. “One day you carried the voice of my
loved one to me.”
“Who taught you to speak the language of the desert and the
wind?”
“My heart,” the boy answered.
The wind has many names. In that part of the world, it was
called the sirocco, because it brought moisture from the oceans to
the east. In the distant land the boy came from, they called it the
levanter, because they believed that it brought with it the sands of
the desert, and the screams of the Moorish wars. Perhaps, in the
places beyond the pastures where his sheep lived, men thought that
the wind came from Andalusia. But, actually, the wind came from no
place at all, nor did it go to any place; that’s why it was stronger
than the desert. Someone might one day plant trees in the desert,
and even raise sheep there, but never would they harness the wind.
“You can’t be the wind,” the wind said. “We’re two very different
things.”
“That’s not true,” the boy said. “I learned the alchemist’s secrets
in my travels. I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans,
the stars, and everything created in the universe. We were all made
by the same hand, and we have the same soul. I want to be like you,
able to reach every corner of the world, cross the seas, blow away
the sands that cover my treasure, and carry the voice of the woman
I love.”
“I heard what you were talking about the other day with the
alchemist,” the wind said. “He said that everything has its own
Personal Legend. But people can’t turn themselves into the wind.”
“Just teach me to be the wind for a few moments,” the boy said.
“So you and I can talk about the limitless possibilities of people and
the winds.”
The wind’s curiosity was aroused, something that had never
happened before. It wanted to talk about those things, but it didn’t
know how to turn a man into the wind. And look how many things
the wind already knew how to do! It created deserts, sank ships,
felled entire forests, and blew through cities filled with music and
strange noises. It felt that it had no limits, yet here was a boy saying
that there were other things the wind should be able to do.
“This is what we call love,” the boy said, seeing that the wind
was close to granting what he requested. “When you are loved, you
can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at
all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens
within you, and even men can turn themselves into the wind. As
long as the wind helps, of course.”
The wind was a proud being, and it was becoming irritated with
what the boy was saying. It commenced to blow harder, raising the
desert sands. But finally it had to recognize that, even making its
may around the world, it didn’t know how to turn a man into the
wind. And it knew nothing about love.
“In my travels around the world, I’ve often seen people speaking
of love and looking toward the heavens,” the wind said, furious at
having to acknowledge its own limitations. “Maybe it’s better to ask
heaven.”
“Well then, help me do that,” the boy said. “Fill this place with a
sandstorm so strong that it blots out the sun. Then I can look to
heaven without blinding myself.”
So the wind blew with all its strength, and the sky was filled with
sand. The sun was turned into a golden disk.
At the camp, it was difficult to see anything. The men of the
desert were already familiar with that wind. They called it the
simum, and it was worse than a storm at sea. Their horses cried out,
and all their weapons were filled with sand.
On the heights, one of the commanders turned to the chief and
said, “Maybe we had better end this!”
They could barely see the boy. Their faces were covered with the
blue cloths, and their eyes showed fear.
“Let’s stop this,” another commander said.
“I want to see the greatness of Allah,” the chief said, with respect.
“I want to see how a man turns himself into the wind.”
But he made a mental note of the names of the two men who had
expressed their fear. As soon as the wind stopped, he was going to
remove them from their commands, because true men of the desert
are not afraid.
“The wind told me that you know about love,” the boy said to the
sun. “If you know about love, you must also know about the Soul of
the World, because it’s made of love.”
“From where I am,” the sun said, “I can see the Soul of the World.
It communicates with my soul, and together we cause the plants to
grow and the sheep to seek out shade. From where I am—and I’m a
long way from the earth—I learned how to love. I know that if I
came even a little bit closer to the earth, everything there would die,
and the Soul of the World would no longer exist. So we contemplate
each other, and we want each other, and I give it life and warmth,
and it gives me my reason for living.”
“So you know about love,” the boy said.
“And I know the Soul of the World, because we have talked at
great length to each other during this endless trip through the
universe. It tells me that its greatest problem is that, up until now,
only the minerals and vegetables understand that all things are one.
That there’s no need for iron to be the same as copper, or copper
the same as gold. Each performs its own exact function as a unique
being, and everything would be a symphony of peace if the hand
that wrote all this had stopped on the fifth day of creation.
“But there was a sixth day,” the sun went on.
“You are wise, because you observe everything from a distance,”
the boy said. “But you don’t know about love. If there hadn’t been a
sixth day, man would not exist; copper would always be just copper,
and lead just lead. It’s true that everything has its Personal Legend,
but one day that Personal Legend will be realized. So each thing has
to transform itself into something better, and to acquire a new
Personal Legend, until, someday, the Soul of the World becomes one
thing only.”
The sun thought about that, and decided to shine more brightly.
The wind, which was enjoying the conversation, started to blow
with greater force, so that the sun would not blind the boy.
“This is why alchemy exists,” the boy said. “So that everyone will
search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he
was in his former life. Lead will play its role until the world has no
further need for lead; and then lead will have to turn itself into gold.
“That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to
become better than we are, everything around us becomes better,
too.”
“Well, why did you say that I don’t know about love?” the sun
asked the boy.
“Because it’s not love to be static like the desert, nor is it love to
roam the world like the wind. And it’s not love to see everything
from a distance, like you do. Love is the force that transforms and
improves the Soul of the World. When I first reached through to it, I
thought the Soul of the World was perfect. But later, I could see that
it was like other aspects of creation, and had its own passions and
wars. It is we who nourish the Soul of the World, and the world we
live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we
become better or worse. And that’s where the power of love comes
in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than
we are.”
“So what do you want of me?” the sun asked.
“I want you to help me turn myself into the wind,” the boy
answered.
“Nature knows me as the wisest being in creation,” the sun said.
“But I don’t know how to turn you into the wind.”
“Then, whom should I ask?”
The sun thought for a minute. The wind was listening closely,
and wanted to tell every corner of the world that the sun’s wisdom
had its limitations. That it was unable to deal with this boy who
spoke the Language of the World.
“Speak to the hand that wrote all,” said the sun.
The wind screamed with delight, and blew harder than ever. The
tents were being blown from their ties to the earth, and the animals
were being freed from their tethers. On the cliff, the men clutched at
each other as they sought to keep from being blown away.
The boy turned to the hand that wrote all. As he did so, he
sensed that the universe had fallen silent, and he decided not to
speak.
A current of love rushed from his heart, and the boy began to
pray. It was a prayer that he had never said before, because it was a
prayer without words or pleas. His prayer didn’t give thanks for his
sheep having found new pastures; it didn’t ask that the boy be able
to sell more crystal; and it didn’t beseech that the woman he had
met continue to await his return. In the silence, the boy understood
that the desert, the wind, and the sun were also trying to
understand the signs written by the hand, and were seeking to
follow their paths, and to understand what had been written on a
single emerald. He saw that omens were scattered throughout the
earth and in space, and that there was no reason or significance
attached to their appearance; he could see that not the deserts, nor
the winds, nor the sun, nor people knew why they had been created.
But that the hand had a reason for all of this, and that only the hand
could perform miracles, or transform the sea into a desert…or a
man into the wind. Because only the hand understood that it was a
larger design that had moved the universe to the point at which six
days of creation had evolved into a Master Work.
The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that
it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was
his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles.
THE SIMUM BLEW THAT DAY AS IT HAD NEVER BLOWN before. For
generations thereafter, the Arabs recounted the legend of a boy who
had turned himself into the wind, almost destroying a military
camp, in defiance of the most powerful chief in the desert.
When the simum ceased to blow, everyone looked to the place
where the boy had been. But he was no longer there; he was
standing next to a sand-covered sentinel, on the far side of the
camp.
The men were terrified at his sorcery. But there were two
people who were smiling: the alchemist, because he had found his
perfect disciple, and the chief, because that disciple had understood
the glory of God.
The following day, the general bade the boy and the alchemist
farewell, and provided them with an escort party to accompany
them as far as they chose.
THEY RODE FOR THE ENTIRE DAY. TOWARD THE END OF the afternoon, they
came upon a Coptic monastery. The alchemist dismounted, and told
the escorts they could return to the camp.
“From here on, you will be alone,” the alchemist said. “You are
only three hours from the Pyramids.”
“Thank you,” said the boy. “You taught me the Language of the
World.”
“I only invoked what you already knew.”
The alchemist knocked on the gate of the monastery. A monk
dressed in black came to the gates. They spoke for a few minutes in
the Coptic tongue, and the alchemist bade the boy enter.
“I asked him to let me use the kitchen for a while,” the alchemist
smiled.
They went to the kitchen at the back of the monastery. The
alchemist lighted the fire, and the monk brought him some lead,
which the alchemist placed in an iron pan. When the lead had
become liquid, the alchemist took from his pouch the strange yellow
egg. He scraped from it a sliver as thin as a hair, wrapped it in wax,
and added it to the pan in which the lead had melted.
The mixture took on a reddish color, almost the color of blood.
The alchemist removed the pan from the fire, and set it aside to cool.
As he did so, he talked with the monk about the tribal wars.
“I think they’re going to last for a long time,” he said to the monk.
The monk was irritated. The caravans had been stopped at Giza
for some time, waiting for the wars to end. “But God’s will be done,”
the monk said.
“Exactly,” answered the alchemist.
When the pan had cooled, the monk and the boy looked at it,
dazzled. The lead had dried into the shape of the pan, but it was no
longer lead. It was gold.
“Will I learn to do that someday?” the boy asked.
“This was my Personal Legend, not yours,” the alchemist
answered. “But I wanted to show you that it was possible.”
They returned to the gates of the monastery. There, the
alchemist separated the disk into four parts.
“This is for you,” he said, holding one of the parts out to the
monk. “It’s for your generosity to the pilgrims.”
“But this payment goes well beyond my generosity,” the monk
responded.
“Don’t say that again. Life might be listening, and give you less
the next time.”
The alchemist turned to the boy. “This is for you. To make up for
what you gave to the general.”
The boy was about to say that it was much more than he had
given the general. But he kept quiet, because he had heard what the
alchemist said to the monk.
“And this is for me,” said the alchemist, keeping one of the parts.
“Because I have to return to the desert, where there are tribal wars.”
He took the fourth part and handed it to the monk.
“This is for the boy. If he ever needs it.”
“But I’m going in search of my treasure,” the boy said. “I’m very
close to it now.”
“And I’m certain you’ll find it,” the alchemist said.
“Then why this?”
“Because you have already lost your savings twice. Once to the
thief, and once to the general. I’m an old, superstitious Arab, and I
believe in our proverbs. There’s one that says, ‘Everything that
happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens
twice will surely happen a third time.’” They mounted their horses.
“I WANT TO TELL YOU A STORY ABOUT DREAMS,” SAID THE alchemist.
The boy brought his horse closer.
“In ancient Rome, at the time of Emperor Tiberius, there lived a
good man who had two sons. One was in the military, and had been
sent to the most distant regions of the empire. The other son was a
poet, and delighted all of Rome with his beautiful verses.
“One night, the father had a dream. An angel appeared to him,
and told him that the words of one of his sons would be learned and
repeated throughout the world for all generations to come. The
father woke from his dream grateful and crying, because life was
generous, and had revealed to him something any father would be
proud to know.
“Shortly thereafter, the father died as he tried to save a child
who was about to be crushed by the wheels of a chariot. Since he
had lived his entire life in a manner that was correct and fair, he
went directly to heaven, where he met the angel that had appeared
in his dream.
“‘You were always a good man,’ the angel said to him. ‘You lived
your life in a loving way, and died with dignity. I can now grant you
any wish you desire.’
“‘Life was good to me,’ the man said. ‘When you appeared in my
dream, I felt that all my efforts had been rewarded, because my
son’s poems will be read by men for generations to come. I don’t
want anything for myself. But any father would be proud of the
fame achieved by one whom he had cared for as a child, and
educated as he grew up. Sometime in the distant future, I would like
to see my son’s words.’
“The angel touched the man’s shoulder, and they were both
projected far into the future. They were in an immense setting,
surrounded by thousands of people speaking a strange language.
“The man wept with happiness.
“‘I knew that my son’s poems were immortal,’ he said to the
angel through his tears. ‘Can you please tell me which of my son’s
poems these people are repeating?’
“The angel came closer to the man, and, with tenderness, led him
to a bench nearby, where they sat down.
“‘The verses of your son who was the poet were very popular in
Rome,’ the angel said. ‘Everyone loved them and enjoyed them. But
when the reign of Tiberius ended, his poems were forgotten. The
words you’re hearing now are those of your son in the military.’
“The man looked at the angel in surprise.
“‘Your son went to serve at a distant place, and became a
centurion. He was just and good. One afternoon, one of his servants
fell ill, and it appeared that he would die. Your son had heard of a
rabbi who was able to cure illnesses, and he rode out for days and
days in search of this man. Along the way, he learned that the man
he was seeking was the Son of God. He met others who had been
cured by him, and they instructed your son in the man’s teachings.
And so, despite the fact that he was a Roman centurion, he
converted to their faith. Shortly thereafter, he reached the place
where the man he was looking for was visiting.’
“‘He told the man that one of his servants was gravely ill, and the
rabbi made ready to go to his house with him. But the centurion was
a man of faith, and, looking into the eyes of the rabbi, he knew that
he was surely in the presence of the Son of God.’
“‘And this is what your son said,’ the angel told the man. ‘These
are the words he said to the rabbi at that point, and they have never
been forgotten: “My Lord, I am not worthy that you should come
under my roof. But only speak a word and my servant will be
healed.””’
The alchemist said, “No matter what he does, every person on
earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally
he doesn’t know it.”
The boy smiled. He had never imagined that questions about life
would be of such importance to a shepherd.
“Good-bye,” the alchemist said.
“Good-bye,” said the boy.
THE BOY RODE ALONG THROUGH THE DESERT FOR SEVERAL hours, listening
avidly to what his heart had to say. It was his heart that would tell
him where his treasure was hidden.
“Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart,” the
alchemist had told him.
But his heart was speaking of other things. With pride, it told the
story of a shepherd who had left his flock to follow a dream he had
on two different occasions. It told of Personal Legend, and of the
many men who had wandered in search of distant lands or beautiful
women, confronting the people of their times with their
preconceived notions. It spoke of journeys, discoveries, books, and
change.
As he was about to climb yet another dune, his heart whispered,
“Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears. That’s where
I am, and that’s where your treasure is.”
The boy climbed the dune slowly. A full moon rose again in the
starry sky: it had been a month since he had set forth from the oasis.
The moonlight cast shadows through the dunes, creating the
appearance of a rolling sea; it reminded the boy of the day when
that horse had reared in the desert, and he had come to know the
alchemist. And the moon fell on the desert’s silence, and on a man’s
journey in search of treasure.
When he reached the top of the dune, his heart leapt. There,
illuminated by the light of the moon and the brightness of the
desert, stood the solemn and majestic Pyramids of Egypt.
The boy fell to his knees and wept. He thanked God for making
him believe in his Personal Legend, and for leading him to meet a
king, a merchant, an Englishman, and an alchemist. And above all
for his having met a woman of the desert who had told him that love
would never keep a man from his Personal Legend.
If he wanted to, he could now return to the oasis, go back to
Fatima, and live his life as a simple shepherd. After all, the alchemist
continued to live in the desert, even though he understood the
Language of the World, and knew how to transform lead into gold.
He didn’t need to demonstrate his science and art to anyone. The
boy told himself that, on the way toward realizing his own Personal
Legend, he had learned all he needed to know, and had experienced
everything he might have dreamed of.
But here he was, at the point of finding his treasure, and he
reminded himself that no project is completed until its objective has
been achieved. The boy looked at the sands around him, and saw
that, where his tears had fallen, a scarab beetle was scuttling
through the sand. During his time in the desert, he had learned that,
in Egypt, the scarab beetles are a symbol of God.
Another omen! The boy began to dig into the dune. As he did so,
he thought of what the crystal merchant had once said: that anyone
could build a pyramid in his backyard. The boy could see now that
he couldn’t do so if he placed stone upon stone for the rest of his life.
Throughout the night, the boy dug at the place he had chosen,
but found nothing. He felt weighted down by the centuries of time
since the Pyramids had been built. But he didn’t stop. He struggled
to continue digging as he fought the wind, which often blew the
sand back into the excavation. His hands were abraded and
exhausted, but he listened to his heart. It had told him to dig where
his tears fell.
As he was attempting to pull out the rocks he encountered, he
heard footsteps. Several figures approached him. Their backs were
to the moonlight, and the boy could see neither their eyes nor their
faces.
“What are you doing here?” one of the figures demanded.
Because he was terrified, the boy didn’t answer. He had found
where his treasure was, and was frightened at what might happen.
“We’re refugees from the tribal wars, and we need money,” the
other figure said. “What are you hiding there?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” the boy answered.
But one of them seized the boy and yanked him back out of the
hole. Another, who was searching the boy’s bags, found the piece of
gold.
“There’s gold here,” he said.
The moon shone on the face of the Arab who had seized him, and
in the man’s eyes the boy saw death.
“He’s probably got more gold hidden in the ground.”
They made the boy continue digging, but he found nothing. As
the sun rose, the men began to beat the boy. He was bruised and
bleeding, his clothing was torn to shreds, and he felt that death was
near.
“What good is money to you if you’re going to die? It’s not often
that money can save someone’s life,” the alchemist had said. Finally,
the boy screamed at the men, “I’m digging for treasure!” And,
although his mouth was bleeding and swollen, he told his attackers
that he had twice dreamed of a treasure hidden near the Pyramids
of Egypt.
The man who appeared to be the leader of the group spoke to
one of the others: “Leave him. He doesn’t have anything else. He
must have stolen this gold.”
The boy fell to the sand, nearly unconscious. The leader shook
him and said, “We’re leaving.”
But before they left, he came back to the boy and said, “You’re
not going to die. You’ll live, and you’ll learn that a man shouldn’t be
so stupid. Two years ago, right here on this spot, I had a recurrent
dream, too. I dreamed that I should travel to the fields of Spain and
look for a ruined church where shepherds and their sheep slept. In
my dream, there was a sycamore growing out of the ruins of the
sacristy, and I was told that, if I dug at the roots of the sycamore, I
would find a hidden treasure. But I’m not so stupid as to cross an
entire desert just because of a recurrent dream.”
And they disappeared.
The boy stood up shakily, and looked once more at the
Pyramids. They seemed to laugh at him, and he laughed back, his
heart bursting with joy.
Because now he knew where his treasure was.
EPILOGUE
THE BOY REACHED THE SMALL, ABANDONED CHURCH JUST as night was
falling. The sycamore was still there in the sacristy, and the stars
could still be seen through the half-destroyed roof. He remembered
the time he had been there with his sheep; it had been a peaceful
night…except for the dream.
Now he was here not with his flock, but with a shovel.
He sat looking at the sky for a long time. Then he took from his
knapsack a bottle of wine, and drank some. He remembered the
night in the desert when he had sat with the alchemist, as they
looked at the stars and drank wine together. He thought of the many
roads he had traveled, and of the strange way God had chosen to
show him his treasure. If he hadn’t believed in the significance of
recurrent dreams, he would not have met the Gypsy woman, the
king, the thief, or…“Well, it’s a long list. But the path was written in
the omens, and there was no way I could go wrong,” he said to
himself.
He fell asleep, and when he awoke the sun was already high. He
began to dig at the base of the sycamore.
“You old sorcerer,” the boy shouted up to the sky. “You knew the
whole story. You even left a bit of gold at the monastery so I could
get back to this church. The monk laughed when he saw me come
back in tatters. Couldn’t you have saved me from that?”
“No,” he heard a voice on the wind say. “If I had told you, you
wouldn’t have seen the Pyramids. They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”
The boy smiled, and continued digging. Half an hour later, his
shovel hit something solid. An hour later, he had before him a chest
of Spanish gold coins. There were also precious stones, gold masks
adorned with red and white feathers, and stone statues embedded
with jewels. The spoils of a conquest that the country had long ago
forgotten, and that some conquistador had failed to tell his children
about.
The boy took out Urim and Thummim from his bag. He had used
the two stones only once, one morning when he was at a
marketplace. His life and his path had always provided him with
enough omens.
He placed Urim and Thummim in the chest. They were also a
part of his new treasure, because they were a reminder of the old
king, whom he would never see again.
It’s true; life really is generous to those who pursue their
Personal Legend, the boy thought. Then he remembered that he had
to get to Tarifa so he could give one-tenth of his treasure to the
Gypsy woman, as he had promised. Those Gypsies are really smart,
he thought. Maybe it was because they moved around so much.
The wind began to blow again. It was the levanter, the wind that
came from Africa. It didn’t bring with it the smell of the desert, nor
the threat of Moorish invasion. Instead, it brought the scent of a
perfume he knew well, and the touch of a kiss—a kiss that came
from far away, slowly, slowly, until it rested on his lips.
The boy smiled. It was the first time she had done that.
“I’m coming, Fatima,” he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PAULO COELHO was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city where
he now lives. His own life has in many ways been as varied and
unusual as the protagonists of his internationally acclaimed novels.
Like them, Paulo Coelho has followed a dream in a quest for
fulfillment. His own dream, to be a writer, met with frustration
throughout much of his early adult life, a time in which he worked at
various professions, some of them materially rewarding but
spiritually unfulfilling. “I always knew,” he says, “that my Personal
Legend, to use a term from alchemy, was to write.” He was thirty-
eight when he published his first book.
In 1970, after deciding that law school was not for him, he
traveled through much of South America, North Africa, Mexico, and
Europe. Returning to Brazil after two years, he began a successful
career as popular songwriter. In 1974, he was imprisoned for a short
time by the military dictatorship then ruling in Brazil. In 1980, he
experienced one of the defining moments of his life: he walked the
five hundred-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in
northwestern Spain. On this ancient highway, used for centuries by
pilgrims from France to get to the cathedral said to house the
remains of St. James, he achieved a self-awareness and a spiritual
awakening that he later described in The Pilgrimage.
Paulo Coelho once said that following your dream is like
learning a foreign language; you will make mistakes but you will get
there in the end. In 1988, he published The Alchemist, a novel that
explores this theme, and it launched him as an international
bestselling author. Specifically, Paulo Coelho is recognized for his
powerful storytelling technique and the profound spiritual insights
he blends seamlessly into his parables. Since then, The Alchemist has
sold more than twenty million copies worldwide and has been
translated into some fifty-six languages. In addition to The
Pilgrimage and The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho has written luminous
novels about the different streams of our lives, including By the
River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, The Valkyries, The Fifth Mountain,
and Veronika Decides to Die. A winner of numerous literary prizes,
Paulo Coelho is also a prominent speaker for humanitarian causes.
In 1999, he received a Crystal Award for Artistic Achievement at the
Davos Economic Forum Conference.
International Acclaim for Paulo Coelho’s
The Alchemist
“The story has the comic charm, dramatic tension, and
psychological intensity of a fairy tale, but it’s full of specific wisdom
as well…. A sweetly exotic tale for young and old alike.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Beneath this novel’s compelling story and the shimmering
elegance with which it’s told lies a bedrock of wisdom about
following one’s heart.”
—Booklist
“As memorable and meaningful as Saint-Exupéry’s The Little
Prince.”
—Austin American-Statesman
“A touching, inspiring fable.”
—Indianapolis Star
“A little poke in the ribs from on high.”
—Detroit Free Press
“The Alchemist is a fabulous success.”
—Der Spiegel (Germany)
“A remarkable tale about the most magical of all journeys: the
quest to fulfill one’s destiny. I recommend The Alchemist to anyone
who is passionately committed to claiming the life of their dreams—
today.”
—Anthony Robbins, author of
Awaken the Giant Within
“An entrepreneurial tale of universal wisdom we can apply to
the business of our own lives.”
—Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of
Who Moved My Cheese
“An adventure story full of magic and wisdom.”
—Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima
“The Alchemist is a beautiful book about magic, dreams and the
treasures we seek elsewhere and then find at our doorstep.”
—Madonna in Sonntag-Aktuell (Germany)
“The Alchemist is an unabashed delight and inspirational
wonder. This fable is a roseate amalgam of spiritual quest,
existential puzzle, lovely sensitivity, and deep strength.”
—Malcolm Boyd, author of
Are You Running with Me, Jesus?
“Paulo Coelho knows the secret of literary alchemy.”
—Kenzaburo Oé, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“A most tender and gentle story. It is a rare gem of a book, and
will most certainly touch the very core of every heart earnestly
seeking its own destiny on the journey of life.”
—Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., coauthor of
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life and Love Is Letting Go of Fear
“Rarely do I come across a story with the directness and
simplicity of Coelho’s The Alchemist. It lifts the reader out of time
and focuses through a believably unlikely story on a young dreamer
looking for himself. A beautiful story with a pointed message for
every reader.”
—Joseph Girzone, author of Joshua
“This is the type of book that makes you understand more about
yourself and about life. It has philosophy, and is spiced with colors,
flavors and subjects, like a fairy tale. A lovely book.”
—Yedi’ot Aharonot (Israel)
“A boy named Santiago joins the ranks of Candide and Pinocchio
by taking us on a very excellent adventure.”
—Paul Zindel, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning play,
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
“The mystic quality in the odd adventures of the boy, Santiago,
may bring not only him but others who read this fine book closer to
recognizing and reaching their own inner destinies.”
—Charlotte Zolotow, author of If You Listen
“Paulo Coelho gives you the inspiration to follow your own
dreams by seeing the world through your own eyes and not
someone else’s.”
—Lynn Andrews, author of the Medicine Woman series
“Nothing is impossible, such is Coelho’s message, as long as you
wish it with all your heart. No other book bears so much hope, small
wonder its author became a guru among all those in search of the
meaning of life.”
—Focus (Germany)
“The Alchemist is a truly poetic book.”
—Welt am Sonntag (Germany)
“Dotted throughout the story and illuminated in a poetic style
are metaphors and deep insights that stir our imagination and
transport the reader on a fantastic journey of the soul.”
—Yomiuri-Shinbun (Japan)
“The Alchemist brings to mind The Little Prince by Saint-Exupéry
and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran, as well as biblical parables.”
—Gazeta Wymborcza (Poland)
“The Alchemist is a beautiful and heartwarming story with an
exotic flavor…. You may or may not agree with PauloCoelho’s
philosophy, but it’s nonetheless a tale that comforts our hearts as
much as our souls.”
—Bergensavisen (Norway)
“The Alchemist is like a modern-day The Little Prince. A supreme
and simple book.”
—Milorad Pavic (Serbia)
“Among Latin American writers, only Columbia’s Gabriel Garcia
Marquez is more widely read than Brazil’s Paulo Coelho.”
—The Economist
Copyright
This book is an English version of O Alquimista, the Portuguese
original edition, published in Brazil by Editora Rocco Ltd. (Rio de
Janeiro). Copyright © 1988 by Paulo Coelho. This edition was
prepared by Alan R. Clarke in consultation with Paulo Coelho.
THE ALCHEMIST. Copyright © 1993 by Paulo Coelho. All rights
reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been
granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read
the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be
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engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage
and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether
electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented,
without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.
PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Mobipocket Reader July 2005 ISBN 0-06-088268-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been
ordered.
ISBN 0–06–250217–4 (cloth)
ISBN 0–06–250218–2 (paperback)
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